Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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450. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the projected cost in 2017 of increasing family income supplement, FIS, by calculating it on the basis of 75% of the difference between the income limit for the family size and the assessable income of the person or persons raising the child or children; and decreasing the number of hours worked by those eligible to more than 15 hours per week. [27514/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependants. There are over 55,000 families with almost 123,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on FIS this year is approximately €410 million.

FIS is calculated on the basis of 60% of the difference between the income limit for the family size and the weekly family income of the person(s) raising the children. Increasing the multiplier for calculation of the rate of FIS payable from 60% to 75% would result in increased expenditure of approximately €101 million.

The “hours worked” eligibility criterion has been reduced significantly since the introduction of the scheme in 1984, from 30 hours per week to 19 hours per week in 1996. As FIS administrative data does not record information on recipients working below 19 hours per week, it is not possible to estimate the costs associated with this measure. However, further reducing the “hours worked” threshold would obviously have increased expenditure implications.