Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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New rules and regulations on the Department of Social and Family Affairs lone-parent family payments are being introduced from the middle of February. From that point on, payments will have to be collected from the post office within five days.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The monitor in the Chamber states the Minister for Transport is responding.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I did not realise the ministerial changes were so radical.

A new regulation has been circulated to postmasters and postmistresses throughout the country. The payment is due on Thursday and must be collected by the following Tuesday. There is no provision made for retention of the money if the collection is not made. This seems too rigid as it leaves no scope for a bereavement where someone may have to travel to England or another part of the country. No scope is allowed for holidays or sickness and no hardship provision is made. No margin of error is allowed for in these regulations. It would be more beneficial to allow 15 days, two weeks encompassing three Thursdays, for collection. This would cover all eventualities.

Let us consider the alternatives. If someone does not collect payment within five days, he or she must make a fresh application to the Department. This must be queried and checked, resulting in bureaucracy and expense. Even though the Minister intends to streamline the procedure, that is not the result.

Additional strain will be placed on the post offices because the alternative is for someone to open a bank account, receiving their payments directly and bypassing the post office. This will be beneficial to banks but not to post offices and most people who attend the post office do not have bank accounts. What appears to be a simple streamlining regulation has major implications. The number of people who do not collect the entitlement within the one week period is not high, unless there is a serious problem. I suggest the Minister review the regulation, allowing 15 days rather than five and allowing the post office to retain the money for that period. This will avoid bureaucracy and make the system more humane and compassionate.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Brennan. The one-parent family payment, OPFP, is the income support scheme for separated, unmarried and widowed persons and also for prisoners' spouses who are bringing up a child or children without the support of a partner. At the end of December 2005, the total number of one-parent family recipients being paid by the Department was 83,066. Included in this figure are payments to 906 widowed persons.

The current scheme was introduced in 1997 when it replaced a number of schemes for different categories of lone parent. These schemes included lone-parent's allowance and deserted wife's benefit. Under the current scheme lone parents are encouraged to maximise their income from different sources and the means test for this scheme makes provision for the exemption of significant levels of earnings and maintenance payments.

Lone parents may earn up to €146.50 per week from employment without affecting the payment. Above that level, half of any earnings are assessed, up to a maximum of €293 per week. The maximum limit of €293 is being increased to €375 per week with effect from June 2006, as a result of changes introduced in last month's budget. Lone parents may also be eligible to avail of the range of employment support services operated by the Department.

Until recently, most of the claim processing work relating to one-parent family claims has been done in the social welfare services office in Sligo. In 2000 the Department undertook a review of the payments arrangements for lone parents. This review recommended that administration of the scheme should be moved to the Department's local offices to bring lone parents into closer contact with the various support services available in those offices. The move to local office level is intended to improve customer service through closer linkage with the local investigative officer network as well as providing more direct local contact for lone parents with the Department's employment support services.

Local one-parent family payment, OPFP, claim processing commenced on a trial basis in the Department's local office in Tallaght in 2001. Following the success of this project, the process has been gradually extended. One-parent family payment applications are processed in 35 social welfare local offices. It is planned that all one-parent family claims will be administered from social welfare local offices early in 2007. Traditionally most one-parent family payment claims using the personalised paying order, PPO, book at their local post office. However, in order that these customers can avail of the services of their local social welfare office, it is necessary to transfer them to another computer system and change their payment method.

From 16 February 2006, the OPFP will no longer have a book of payable orders. Recipients will still collect their payment at post offices utilising their social services card. The card will be swiped at the post office counter for validation purposes and the cash will then be handed to the customer. This form of card-based payment is known as electronic information transfer, ElT, payment. Under this system, the payment must be collected by close of business on the Tuesday following the Thursday payday. If the payment is not collected by then, the payment is returned to the Department. If the customer has been unable to collect the payment, for instance due to illness, work commitments or holidays, arrangements are made to have the payment reissued. The Department is reviewing the possibility of extending the period during which the payment may be collected. That is the substance of the issue raised by Deputy Costello in moving this Adjournment.

A total of 13,795 one-parent family payment recipients receive their payments using the ElT method of payment. Approximately 44,000 customers are being issued with social services cards via the An Post network to enable them to avail of the ElT payment method in preparation for their claims being processed on a localised basis. An information sheet has been enclosed with the cards advising customers on the change in their payment method and when the change will come into effect. If a customer has ongoing difficulty collecting the payment promptly every week, he or she should contact the one-parent family payment section in Sligo.