Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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50. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider introducing a qualified child increase for persons in receipt of a widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's (non-contributory) pension, considering the consequences of the recent changes to the one parent family payment, and the fact that those on a widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's (contributory) pension may receive a payment for their children up to 22 years of age; if he will acknowledge that this situation is unfair on persons in receipt of the non-contributory pension; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18730/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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All Social welfare contributory schemes, including the Widows/Widowers or Surviving Partners contributory pension are insurance based schemes. The pension is paid to the husband or wife of a deceased person and is available to those who satisfy the necessary PRSI contribution conditions, either on their own record or on that of the deceased spouse, provided the applicant is not cohabiting. A claimant may also qualify for an increase for a qualified child as part of the conditions of this PRSI contribution based scheme.

In order to qualify, either the person claiming or their spouse or civil partner must have:

- At least 260 paid contributions paid before the relevant date (which is either the date of the bereavement or the 66th birthday of one of the spouses, depending on the basis of qualification), and

- An average of 39 paid or credited contributions in either the 3 or 5 years before the death of the spouse or civil partner or before he or she reached pension age (66), or

- A yearly average of at least 24 paid or credited contributions from the year of first entry into insurance until the year of death or reaching pension age. If this average is used then an average of 24 will entitle a person to a minimum payment, they will need an average of 48 per year to get the full pension.

For those who do not meet the qualifying condition of such a contributory payment, they may apply for a means-tested Widow’s or Widower’s (non-contributory) pension, which may be payable to those who are under 66 and who do not satisfy the social insurance conditions. This is a payment for widows, widowers or surviving civil partners who do not have dependent children, and who have not reached State pension age. If the person has qualified children, they may instead qualify for the means-tested one-parent family payment (OFP).

The Deputy may wish to note the phased one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme age change reforms were introduced in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2012, to reduce long-term social welfare dependency by ending the expectation that lone parents will remain outside of the workforce indefinitely. The final phase of the one-parent family payment scheme age change reforms will be taking place on 2 July, 2015, when the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which a one-parent family payment ceases will be reduced to 7 years for all recipients. Prior to these reforms lone parents could have been on the scheme until their youngest child turned 18 years of age (or 22 years of age if they were in full time education).

However, there is an exemption to these reforms for recipients who are recently bereaved. In these circumstances the One-Parent Family Payment will be payable for two years from the date of death of the spouse/civil partner/co-habitant or until the youngest child reaches age 18, whichever occurs first. If after the two years has elapsed and the person continues to have an income support need, they will either remain on the one-parent family payment, move to the jobseeker's transitional payment or to the jobseeker's allowance (JA) depending on the age of their youngest child, in the same way as any other lone parent.