Ms Lorraine Hennessy:

There are many areas where a lack of information is the reason people fall through the cracks. They have not been told the right thing. If they can be told and a system can be set up whereby when one's payment is finished, one's options are set out, it would be useful. It could also be that when one goes in, one's options are fully explained to one. That is improving with the new Intreo service, but not everyone has access to that.

The Senator also asked who got the child dependant allowance. There is already a system in place. If there are split payments or two people are on separate payments, the child dependant allowance is split in half and given to both. If one was to introduce the type of system Dr. Mary Murphy suggested, that would be the fairest way to do it.