Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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63. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide, regarding jobseekers, benefit and allowance details for any recent period of the number of claimants; the number of claimants claiming for an adult dependant; if the status or category of adult dependant will be explained; if numbers or percentages of husband, wife, adult, child, sibling and other will be provided; if numbers are available for same-sex adult dependant or if such data are known or irrelevant and the relationships it could be taken to include; if the management and control of the same-sex adult dependant data could be expected to change following the referendum in May 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10864/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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At the end of February there were 553,003 beneficiaries of jobseeker’s assistance (JA) or jobseeker’s benefit (JB). A breakdown of this figure by scheme, recipient, qualified adult dependent and qualified child increase (full or half rate) is detailed in the attached tabular statement.

A claimant of either JA or JB can claim for the payment of a qualified adult dependent allowance in respect of a spouse, a civil partner, a common law partner or a person with whom they are cohabiting.

Data on the gender of qualified adult dependents in receipt of payment under these schemes is not readily available from Department systems therefore I am not in a position to provide a breakdown of the number of qualified adults by reference to whether or not they share the same gender as the primary claimant.

I do not anticipate any requirement to introduce a gender based categorisation of adult dependents for statistical purposes if the proposition being put before the people in the thirty fourth amendment to the Constitution is accepted by the people. However, as you are aware, the recording and provision of statistical information is kept under on-going review to ensure that it meets the requirements of organisations such as the CSO and EUROSTAT and that it provides appropriate insights in support of policy decisions. Accordingly a gender based categorisation may be introduced in the future.

With regard to control processes the department takes the relationship status of adults living at a single address into consideration when assessing their eligibility for receipt of payments including eligibility for either individual or qualified adult dependent payments. In this regard the marriage status, irrespective of gender, is a factor that is and, will continue to be, considered when assessing and/or reviewing claims.

Recipients and beneficiaries of jobseeker’s allowance and jobseeker’s benefit at the end of

February 2015