Written answers

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

Department of Social Protection

Child Benefit Payments

Photo of Mary Lou McDonaldMary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the options she is currently considering regarding child benefit including, the way and which vulnerable families would be compensated for any cut to the universal payment; if she is considering a top-up via qualified child increase, family income supplement and domicilliary care allowance or if a new means-test and income threshold will be introduced for the purposes of child benefit alone. [49837/12]

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that persons in households with children are almost three times as likely to be in debt arising from ordinary living expenses compared with those living in households without children; if she has investigated the impact that any cut to child benefit would have on the level of debt amongst households with children; if so, her findings and if not, if she will arrange for this research to be conducted. [49835/12]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 107 and 128 together.

Family and child income support payments assist parents in contributing to the costs associated with raising children and play a very important role in the objective of reducing child poverty. It should be noted that expenditure this year on child benefit, qualified child increases on primary social welfare payments, the family income supplement and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance is estimated to be just over €3 billion as outlined in the table.

Year
Child Benefit
Family Income Supplement
Qualified Child Increases
BTSCFA
Total spending
€million
€million
€million
€million
€million
2012
(Estimated)
2,078.6
199.5
698.0
63.7
3,040

The Government is conscious that these payments are an important source of income for families, particularly during a time of recession and unemployment. Any plans to change the amount paid in respect of such payments will be a matter to be decided in a budgetary context and announced on Budget day. I do not therefore propose to speculate on any possible approaches to child benefit payment rates changes, on whether it should be income-tested or on any question of compensating vulnerable families through increases in other payments at this time.

As part of the budget process, my Department conducts extensive analysis of the impacts of possible budgetary decisions and in particular of the likely impact on poverty outcomes. The financial impact of proposals on various family types is also examined.

In relation to the question on ‘debt arising from ordinary living expenses’, I have assumed that the statistics quoted in the question relate to the recently published CSO report entitled “Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Thematic Report on Children 2004 – 2010”.

The publication does show that among several indicators of household deprivation, the indicator for those reporting that they are in debt from ordinary living expenses is higher in households with children (at 17.9%) than in households without children (at 6.5%). I would point out that the social protection system already plays a very significant role in protecting vulnerable families from the problems associated with low-income including indebtedness. For instance, the SILC data also show that the “at risk of poverty rate” for people living in households with children in 2010 decreased from 49.4 per cent when all social transfers were excluded to 18.7 per cent when all social transfers were included: a reduction of nearly 31 percentage points. This clearly demonstrates the role that social transfers play in protecting people in households with children from poverty.

Photo of Dara CallearyDara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider introducing flexibility to casual workers receiving social welfare benefit in Budget 2013 with a hours based rather than days based system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49885/12]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The current total of 421,490 persons on the Live Register includes over 80,000 casual workers in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance or jobseeker’s benefit. It is recognised that a changing labour market has resulted in a move away from the more traditional work patterns, with a consequent increase in the number of casual workers. In tandem many large employers currently have significant numbers of part time workers who are also being paid by the Department. In acknowledgement of this trend, the Department has commenced work on the consideration of the future structure of the jobseeker schemes. In this regard my Department’s work is being informed by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education report, A Review of the Status of Casual Workers in Ireland . This report recommended increasing the flexibility of the existing jobseeker schemes by moving from the current days based system to a system of entitlement based on hours.

However, increasing flexibility in the system could potentially, depending on the behavioural response, increase the number of people claiming a jobseeker’s payment thereby increasing the total cost of the scheme to the Exchequer.

Other issues which are under active consideration are, aligning the jobseeker’s week to the calendar week and compensating for the loss of employment only or stated availability, whichever is the lesser.

This work is complex and is taking place in the context of other social welfare reforms including the recognition of Sunday working for jobseekers, the current economic situation, and the considerable administrative change that implementation of reform to the jobseeker’s schemes will require.

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