Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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424. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of increasing the qualified child increase by €1 for children under the age of 12 and €1 for children over the age of 12 respectively. [33519/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Increases for a Qualified Child (IQCs) are paid as child-related supplements to most weekly social welfare payments in recognition of the need for greater incomes among benefit-dependent households with dependent children.  As of May 2021, there are an estimated 337,381 children supported by an IQC. 

Budget 2021 increased the rate of the IQC for a qualified child aged under 12 by €2 to €38 per week, and for a qualified child aged 12 or older by €5 to €45 per week.  These increases came into effect in January. 

The estimated cost of increasing the IQC by €1 per week is approximately €16.2 million for a full year. This estimate is comprised of a cost of €9.7 million in respect of children under 12 years, and €6.5 million in respect of children over 12 years.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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425. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of increasing the carer’s support grant to €2,000. [33520/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full year cost of increasing the Carer's Support Grant from €1,850 to €2,000 is €21.5 million, based on the estimated number of recipients in 2021

This costing is subject to change in light of emerging trends and subsequent revision of the estimated number of recipients.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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426. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of extending the fuel allowance for one additional week. [33521/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full year cost of extending the Fuel Allowance season by one week is €10.5 million. 

This cost is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. 

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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427. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of bringing the current young jobseeker’s rate of €112.70 per week up to the full rate of €203. [33522/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated full year cost of increasing Jobseekers Allowance for recipients aged 18 to 24 from €112.70 per week to €203 per week is €64.8 million.  This includes an increase for qualified adults and those on an age reduced rate of Supplementary Welfare Allowance.

This costing is based on the estimated number of recipients in 2021, and is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. 

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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428. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated full year cost of increasing the jobseeker’s transitional payment scheme age cut-off to 18 years of age. [33523/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides a number of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) ceases.  These include the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment where the youngest child is aged 7-13 years (inclusive) and the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over.  The Working Family Payment (WFP), is also available to lone parents who are working 19 or more hours per week.  Lone parents who move to WFP may also apply for the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD).

To extend eligibility for the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment as proposed would be contrary to the policy goal of the changes to the One-Parent Family Payment scheme introduced since 2015.  Those changes were designed to tackle long-term social welfare dependency and its associated poverty risks. 

This is done through a tapering of income supports and a more active engagement process offering enhanced educational, training and employment supports.

I am advised that the cost of increasing the age limit for a qualified child for the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) until the youngest child reaches 18 is not easily estimated as there are significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise.  For example, customers may no longer be within the welfare system, while others could seek to move from alternative payments such as Jobseekers Allowance (JA), the Working Family Payment (WFP) and the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) back to JST.  It would be difficult for my Department to estimate the magnitude of this flow into and between schemes with any degree of accuracy.

As these unknown factors are critical to providing a reliable estimate, the Department is not in a position to provide a full-year cost as requested by the Deputy. 

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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429. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of providing rent supplement to survivors of domestic violence in 2020. [33524/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Lead responsibility for the development and provision of services to support victims of domestic violence rests with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

In August 2020, I agreed a protocol with Tusla on a pilot basis involving a referral process through Safe Ireland and other service providers resulting in changes to the rent supplement scheme to make it more easily accessible to victims of domestic violence on a pilot basis.  This seeks to ensure that victims of domestic violence are not prevented from leaving their home because of financial or accommodation difficulties.  The protocol was introduced in the context of the current pandemic and I have provided that the protocol will remain in place until the end of this year at which time it will be reviewed.

Under the protocol, after six months of support, it is expected that the customer will, if eligible, be able to migrate to HAP or other social housing supports supported by their local authority. The arrangements in this protocol are additional and complementary to, and not a substitution for, the range of other supports already in place for victims of domestic violence.

A total of 46 victims of domestic violence availed of support under this protocol in 2020, the cost of which was approximately €73,000.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.