Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will make changes to the family income supplement scheme to allow for a more regular review of the payment level especially in circumstances when the family suffer a reduction of income through their working hours being reduced because under the current system a family must wait until the full 52 week period concludes before the payment level is reviewed. [11866/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Family Income Supplement (FIS) payment is designed to provide income for employees on low earnings with families. Expenditure on FIS for 2011 was of the order of €204 million in respect of some 29,000 families. The payment preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he/she was unemployed and claiming other social welfare payments. To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in full-time insurable employment which is expected to last for at least 3 months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. The applicant must also have at least one qualified child who normally resides with - or is supported by - him/her. Furthermore, the average family income must be below a specified amount which varies according to the number of qualified children in the family.

An integral part of the FIS scheme is that once the level of payment is determined, it continues to be payable at that rate for a period of 52 weeks, provided that the person remains in full-time employment. The rate of payment may be increased if an additional child is born in the course of the 52 weeks. On the other hand, the rate of payment will not change if there is an increase or decrease in the recipient's earnings. 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. This certainty is important to the success of the scheme as it provides a real incentive to workers with families to avail of employment opportunities.

Claimants must apply to have their payment renewed if they wish to receive payment for a further 52 weeks. At present, application forms for renewal of the payment of FIS for a further 52 weeks are issued one month in advance of the expiry of the current payment and are processed in order of the date of expiry of the current payment and not by the date of receipt of a completed renewal form. This is designed to facilitate the collection of the most up-to-date customer information to ensure the fairest calculation of entitlement for the next 52 week payment period of FIS.

I have no plans to change the existing arrangements and any changes to the scheme would require an amendment to the legislation. However, the FIS payment is one of the family and child income supports that are currently being examined by the Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare which was established in mid-2011. The Group has been tasked with recommending cost-effective solutions as to how employment disincentives can be improved and better poverty outcomes can be achieved, particularly child poverty outcomes.