Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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403. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there are any plans to introduce short-term illness benefit for the self-employed. [6822/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Illness Benefit is the primary short term income support provided by my Department to those who are unable to work due to illness of any type and who are covered by social insurance.

Eligibility for Illness Benefit depends on the person’s PRSI record and class. People must have made the required number of contributions in Class A, E, H or P to qualify. Currently there are no plans to extend entitlement to illness benefit to those persons who pay Class S PRSI.

In general, self-employed people make PRSI contributions at Class S which does not count towards eligibility for Illness Benefit. However, self-employed contributors who cannot work due to an illness or a disability may apply for Disability Allowance, a means-tested social assistance payment, or Invalidity Pension, a social insurance payment.

Illness Benefit is funded by the Social Insurance Fund through PRSI contributions. The Fund is central to our social protection system and the Government needs to ensure that it can provide adequate and sustainable social insurance pensions and benefits for a growing and ageing population.

Self-employed people pay contributions to the Fund at a lower rate of 4%. This is 11 percentage points lower than the combined employer and employee contribution of 15.05% made in respect of employed contributors. However, self-employed contributors do have access to over 90% of benefits available from the Fund. These are:

- Adoptive Benefit;

- Guardian's Payment (Contributory);

- Invalidity Pension;

- Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed);

- Maternity Benefit;

- Parent's Benefit;

- Partial Capacity Benefit (where in receipt of Invalidity Pension);

- Paternity Benefit;

- State Pension (Contributory);

- Treatment Benefit; and

- Widows, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Contributory) Pension.

The only benefits that Class S PRSI does not provide access to are Carer's Benefit, Health and Safety Benefit, Illness Benefit, and Occupational Injuries Benefits.

Any changes would need to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context, including the contribution rates for self-employed contributors.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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404. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason social welfare payments to single mothers, such as the one-parent family payment, are reduced if their ex-partner is still contributing to the family's mortgage payments. [6935/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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One-Parent Family Payment is a means-tested payment which is made to men or women who are caring for a child or children without the support of a partner and whose youngest child is aged under 7. The Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is then available where the youngest child is aged between 7 and 14, subject to the qualifying criteria.

Social welfare legislation provides that, for social assistance schemes such as One-Parent Family Payment, all income, non-cash benefits, and capital belonging to the claimant are assessable for means-testing purposes. Accordingly, where an individual is receiving a contribution to the payment of the mortgage on their family home, the cash value of amounts in excess of €4,952 per year is assessed.

On foot of recommendations of the Child Maintenance Review Group, the Government has decided to make a number of improvements to the payments available to lone parents. In particular, the means test for social welfare payments will be eased as child maintenance payments will no longer be assessed. This will mean that many lone parents currently on reduced rates of payment will see their payment increase. It will also mean that some additional lone parents will qualify for a payment. It is estimated that this measure will be of direct benefit to approximately 16,000 lone parents at a cost of approximately €10 million per year.

Introducing these changes requires amendments to legislation, the details of which are currently being examined. The reforms will also necessitate changes to some of my Department’s systems, application forms and processes.

My officials are working on advancing the legislative provisions and associated issues at present to ensure implementation as early as possible. In the meantime, other changes recommended by the report - namely the removal of the liable relatives provisions and the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirements - are being implemented on an administrative basis.