Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will clarify changes made in budget 2012 to one-parent family payments for applicants who applied after 27 April 2011 and whose children turns 14 in 2012; and does the payment cease once the child turns 14 or do they continue to receive it until the end of 2012. [8782/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Legislative changes were introduced to the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme in the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2010. These came into effect on 27 April, 2011, and reduced the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the OFP to 14. Further changes to the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the OFP were announced in Budget 2012.

For pre-27 April, 2011 customers the current tapering arrangement will remain in place until 2015 (i.e. age 18 in 2012, age 17 in 2013, age 16 in 2014), at which point the age limit of the youngest child for receipt of payment will reduce to age 7. A saver, up to the end of the 2012-2013 academic year, was provided for recipients with a child aged between 17 and 22 who is in full-time education, when the change in qualification was introduced on 27 April, 2011 and this will continue to apply.

For customers whose OFP claim commenced between 27 April, 2011 and April, 2012 the current age limit of age 14 will remain in place in 2012 and there will therefore be no change. The age limit will then reduce to age 12 in 2013, age 10 in 2014 and age 7 in 2015. In all cases, the age limit applies when the child reaches that age.