Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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498. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she plans to address circumstances in which there is joint co-parenting and equal shared custody of children following a relationship breakdown in which one parent receives all social welfare benefits and allowances and the other parent has no entitlement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3775/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In cases where parents have a joint custody arrangement that is not equally split, child income support payments are awarded to the parent who is the primary carer and with whom the child spends most of their time. In cases where the parents have an equal custody arrangement, individual payments follow the rules of the scheme concerned. For example, in the case of Child Benefit, the payment is awarded to the mother in equal custody arrangements as the mother is deemed to be the qualified person to receive this payment under social welfare legislation.

Either parent can apply for the Working Family Payment and can be awarded if they meet the eligibility criteria.In the case of separated parents one of the requirements is that the person must either be living with the child or children orbe wholly maintaining their former spouse, civil partner or cohabitant with whom the child or children are living. Only one Working Family Payment claim can be awarded in respect of any child.

In order to be eligible for One-Parent Family Payment or Jobseekers' Transitional Payment the applicant must be the main carer for at least one child. This means that the child must live with and spend most of their time with that parent. So, those payments cannot be paid to either parent in circumstances where both parents are equally maintaining the child or children. Where a person who has an income need does not qualify for either of these payments they might qualify for another of the Department's income supports such as jobseeker's allowance.

I want to assure the Deputy that my Department keeps this approach under review. The Department regularly reviews all of its schemes in order to ensure that they are still delivering on their policy aims and objectives.