Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 156: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of claims for one parent family payment being processed here; the way this compares to the number of applicants being processed in the same period in 2006 and 2007; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39450/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The one-parent family payment is a means tested income support scheme for separated, unmarried and widowed persons who are rearing a child or children without the support of a partner.

The number of people in receipt of one-parent family payment at 31 October 2008 is 85,977. The corresponding figure for the end of October 2007 was 84,462 and 82,524 at the end of October 2006.

The increase in the number of claims being processed is due in the main to changes in the income limit for entitlement to one-parent family payment over the period. The weekly income limit was increased from €293 to €375 in May 2006, to €400 from May 2007 and to €425 from May 2008.