Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

The conditions of the scheme dictate that a person in prison is deemed to be separated from his or her family unit. Once a person leaves prison and returns to the family home, the four week transitional period is available. On the other hand, if a person does not return to the family home, in order for the lone parent family allowance to continue, the lone parent claiming the allowance will be required to go through the usual assessment process to ascertain whether he or she is fully separated from the spouse in order to claim the payment.

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