Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 189: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when the lower threshold in relation to the means test for lone parents receiving welfare but engaged in employment was last increased; and the rationale for not increasing this threshold. [27628/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The main income support mechanism for lone parents is currently the one parent family payment (OFP) — a payment for parents (either male or female) who are bringing up a child without the support of a partner.

To qualify for payment, a parent must have main care and charge of at least one qualified child, must have earnings under €400 per week and satisfy a means test, must not be cohabiting with another person as husband and wife and must satisfy the habitual residence condition.

The weekly disregard for earned income is currently €146.50. Income up to this amount is disregarded in the calculation of OFP for a claimant. This threshold has been in place since 1997. In addition, only half of any additional earned income is assessed as means up to the upper earnings threshold of €400 per week. This upper earnings limit was increased from €293 a week over the course of the last two budgets, in accordance with a recommendation contained in the 2006 Government discussion paper, Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents.

Despite increases in both the weekly rates of payment and in the upper earnings limit, I fully accept that lone parents group is still one of the groups most at risk of poverty today in Ireland.

It is generally accepted that the best route out of poverty is through employment. Therefore, I am convinced that the best way to help those lone parents who are still caught in the poverty trap is through the provision of quality supports and activation measures, combined with social assistance payments.

I do not believe that increasing the lower earnings threshold for recipients of OFP would actively help them to combat the risk of poverty. Instead, my Department is actively considering options for reforming income supports to lone parents, with a view to making it easier for them to take up employment. In addition the senior officials group on social inclusion is examining proposals geared towards helping lone parents into quality employment and away from long-term welfare dependency. This can only be to the benefit of the parents themselves and more importantly, their children.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 190: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when the living alone allowance was first introduced and the rate that applied at that time; the rate of the maximum old age pension that applied at the time of its introduction; the rate the living alone allowance has subsequently been increased in each year; and the new rate of the allowance and the rate of the maximum old age pension in that year in each case. [27629/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The living alone increase is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who are living alone. It is also available to people under 66 years of age who are living alone and who receive payments under one of a number of invalidity type schemes.

The increase is intended as a contribution towards the additional costs people face when they live alone. It was introduced in 1977 at the rate of £1.00 (€1.27) per week. The old age contributory pension (now the state pension (contributory)) was paid at the rate of £13.90 (€17.65) per week at the time. Changes made to the living alone increase since its introduction in 1977 and the corresponding rate of state pension (contributory) are given in the following table.