Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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50. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the cost in 2015 of not proceeding with the reduction of the income disregard for the one parent family payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36385/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme supports 71,886 recipients at an estimated cost of €863 million in 2014.

The Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2012, provided for the reduction, on a phased basis, of the OFP scheme income disregard for new and existing recipients of the payment. In line with the legislation, the income disregard was reduced from €110 per week to €90 per week in January, 2014, and will be further reduced from €90 per week to €75 per week in January, 2015, and from €75 per week to €60 per week in January, 2016.

The estimated cost, in 2015, of maintaining the OFP scheme income disregard at its current level of €90 per week would be in the order of €8.3 million. There would also be additional costs in maintaining the income disregard at €90 per week in 2016 and in subsequent years.

Any changes to the OFP scheme income disregard, other than those that are already provided for in legislation, would be a matter for the Government to consider in a budgetary context.