Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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810. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if consideration will be given to extending eligibility to the living alone allowance to people in receipt of the one-parent family payment or jobseeker's transitional payment, who are the sole source of income to their household; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12598/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Primary weekly social welfare payments are intended to enable recipients to meet their basic day-to-day income needs. In addition to these primary payments, my Department also provides a range of other secondary payments.

The Living Alone Increase (LAI) is one of those secondary payments. It is not a scheme or a stand-alone payment, but rather it is a supplement to a primary social protection payment, at a rate of €22 per week, paid to people who are living alone and in receipt of certain social welfare payments:

- people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of State Pension (Contributory), State Pension (Non-Contributory), Widow's, Widower’s, or Surviving Civil Partner's (Contributory) Pension, Widow's, Widower’s, or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension, Widow's/Widower's Pension under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme, Incapacity Supplement under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme, Deserted Wife's Benefit, and who are living alone.

- people who are less than 66 years of age, living alone who have a long-term illness or disability and in receipt of Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Incapacity Supplement or Blind Pension.

The One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) is a payment for lone parents under 66 who are not cohabiting, and whose youngest child is under 7. The Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) is a special arrangement under the Jobseeker’s Allowance scheme that aims to support lone parents into the workforce while they have young children. It is a payment for lone parents whose youngest child is aged between 7 and 13. Both payments are means tested. Recipients can engage in employment and continue to receive a payment if they continue to satisfy the means tests and conditionality.

While recipients of One-Parent Family and Jobseeker’s Transitional Payments do not qualify for the LAI, both OFP and JST payments are comprised of both a personal weekly rate and increases for each qualified child (IQC). Over the past three budgets, IQC rates have increased by €6 (to €42 per week) for under 12s and by €10 (to €50 per week) for over 12s.

Any decision to extend the LAI would have to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.