Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her estimate for the increase in family income supplement claims arising from the introduction of the pension levy on public servants. [9294/09]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the measures she proposes to take in the next 12 months to increase the take-up of family income supplement. [9247/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 57 and 65 together.

The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is designed to provide support for people with families who are on low earnings. This preserves the incentive for them to remain in employment in circumstances where they might only be marginally better off than if they were claiming other social welfare payments.

The extent to which a worker may avail of the Family Income Supplement is dependent on the following conditions being met:

Person is in full-time employment which is expected to last for at least 3 months

Works at least 19 hours weekly or 38 hours every fortnight

Has at least one qualified child who normally resides with the applicant and/or is supported by the applicant

Whose average weekly family income is below a specified amount, which varies according to the number of qualified children in the family.

An integral feature of the scheme is that, once the level of the FIS payment is determined, it continues to be payable at that level for a period of 52 weeks provided that the person remains in employment. However, the rate of payment can be increased where an additional child is born in the course of the 52 weeks. A key advantage of this approach, which is unique to the FIS scheme, is that claimants can be certain that they will receive a guaranteed level of income support throughout the period.

FIS is calculated on the basis of 60% of the difference between the income limit for the family size and the net income of the person(s) raising the child(ren). Net income for FIS purposes comprises total family income less tax, employee PRSI, health contribution, income levy and superannuation contribution. In addition the recently introduced pension levy will also be deductible from income when calculating the eligibility to FIS.

The pension levy deduction will apply to public sector employees, who are members of a public service pension scheme, and all income earned after 1st March 2009 will be subject to the deduction. This will give rise to a reduction in net income of public servants. This reduction in net income is likely to impact on (i) public service workers who are currently FIS recipients and (ii) public service workers, who heretofore failed to apply or qualify for FIS due to income slightly above the FIS earnings thresholds but who now may qualify for FIS in light of the introduction of the pension levy.

A previous manual random sample analysis estimated that approximately 10% of FIS claims relate to those working in the public service. However, current data on those who may now qualify for FIS is unavailable. The absence of this data coupled with factors such as rising levels of remuneration e.g. incremental wage increases of workers impacting on possible entitlement, a reduction in the number of qualified children, which may disqualify a potential FIS recipient, together with any possible uptake of or indeed return from any work sharing/family friendly arrangements, renders it difficult to quantify with any precision any likely increase in FIS claims due to the introduction of the pension levy on public servants.

The department currently undertakes a number of measures to ensure that people are aware of possible entitlement to Family Income (FIS). These include advice to all persons who are awarded a one parent family payment and back to work recipients. Furthermore an extensive advertising campaign for FIS was conducted in 2006. Information on FIS is also published on the Department's website and made available through the Citizen's Information Service.

To help establish the best ways of promoting FIS going forward, the department commissioned a research project in 2008 to examine factors behind the level of take up for the scheme. The research found that overall awareness of Family Income Supplement among potential recipients is high with nearly three in four claiming to have heard of the scheme. Despite high levels of awareness, there was a lack of awareness and understanding of the eligibility requirements with only one in three claiming to be aware of the qualifying criteria for FIS.

The report recommends that the Department needs to ensure that information about the scheme is advertised in a focused way with the eligibility and qualification criteria communicated as clearly as possible. The Department is addressing this by ensuring such information is highlighted as part of its ongoing publicity and advertisement campaigns.