Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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120. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide an update on the proposed legislation on child maintenance system changes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24665/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Report of the Child Maintenance ReviewGroup was published last November. The Government accepted the Group's recommendations in relation to the social welfare system. I am pleased to say that, pending the introduction of the necessary legislation, my Department has already implemented some of the recommended changes on an administrative basis.

As a result, my Department is no longer applying the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirement to One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment. This requirement often involved lone parents having to go to Court to seek a maintenance order, so this change will remove a potential additional stress for them, as well as helping to reduce the burden on our courts system.

In addition, the liable relative provisions are not being applied to new claims for One-Parent Family Payment. This means that my Department will no longer seek to recoup a portion of claim costs from the non-resident parent in these cases. I want to be very clear that removing these provisions does not replace or supersede the primary responsibility of parents to maintain their children.

In addition, child maintenance payments will be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments. This measure 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.

These are very significant reforms of the social welfare system which will be of great benefit to lone parents. These changes require amendments to both primary and secondary legislation as well as 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 full implementation as early as possible. In the meantime, as I have outlined, a number of the recommendations are being implemented on an administrative basis.