Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 July 2018
866. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the age limit for the one parent family payment to 12 and 18 years of age, respectively. [30332/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe estimate cost of increasing the age limit for qualified child for the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) scheme to 12 and 18 years of age respectively would be very difficult to estimate with any accuracy.
There are three significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise. Firstly, a reversal of the amendments made to the OFP scheme could result in a cohort of lone parents that are currently not in receipt of a social welfare payment becoming eligible and therefore moving onto a social welfare payment. As members of this cohort are not currently in receipt of a social welfare payment it would be difficult to for my Department to estimate the numbers involved.
Secondly, some customers could seek to move from alternative payments such as Jobseekers Allowance (JA), the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) and the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) back to the OFP. Again, it would be difficult for my Department to estimate the magnitude of this flow between schemes with any degree of accuracy.
Finally, reversing the changes to the OFP would also increase the incidence of dual payments of OFP and the Working Family Payment (WFP). It would not be possible to estimate the extent to which Working Family Payments might change, without having detailed knowledge of individuals’ working patterns and level of earnings.
These unknown factors are critical to providing a reliable costing. My Department is therefore not in a position to provide the costing requested.
