Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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874. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of people on disability allowance and invalidity pension who to date in 2023 have lost their entitlement to these payments entirely or have had them reduced following a change in circumstance where they now reside with a partner initiating a review of their income, in tabular form. [56668/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Invalidity Pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and for no other reason and who satisfy the contribution conditions. As IP is a contribution-based payment, customers will not lose their entitlement to the basic IP rate due to a change in circumstances where they now reside with a spouse, civil partner or cohabitant. Customers may lose their entitlement to additional increases such as Living Alone Increase, Fuel Allowance or Telephone Support Allowance payable with IP if their living arrangements change, but their personal rate of IP might not be affected. There were no IP customers who lost their basic rate IP in 2023 due to a change in their living arrangements.

Disability allowance (DA) is a means tested payment for people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. The applicant must be suffering from an injury, disease, congenital deformity or physical or mental illness or defect, which has lasted for one year or is expected to last for one year and as a result of which they are substantially restricted in undertaking work which would otherwise be suitable having regard to the person’s age, experience and qualifications. The person must also satisfy a means test and be habitually resident in the State.

Statistics are not available on DA recipients categorised by a termination or reduction in payments due to a change in circumstances arising from cohabitation or marriage. Therefore, my Department is in not in a position to supply the information in the manner sought.

The overall number of individuals impacted by terminations or reductions in payments for 2023 are as follows:

I trust that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age.

Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17 if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves.

The following table outlines expenditure for Child Benefit in respect of customers who are living in Ireland under the Temporary Protection Directive for 2022 and 2023.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age.

Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17 if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves.

Child Benefit was paid to 652,000 families in respect of 1.2 million children at a cost of €2.4 billion in 2023.

By the end of 2023, over 15,000 claims had been processed under the Temporary Protection Directive for Ukrainian citizens.

From March 2022 to December 2023, Child Benefit was stopped in respect of 3,000 children where the children had left the state and the payment was made under the Temporary Protection Directive. A stopped payment can be as a result of the customer informing the Department or from a control review.

The Department has a responsibility to ensure payment is made to all qualifying persons and to ensure that Child Benefit is only paid to eligible families. All customers in receipt of Child Benefit are subject to a control review. Reviews are carried out every 12 to 18 months.

Customers with Temporary Protection Ukraine (TPU) status are subject to the same control measures as all other customers. Child Benefit is not payable where children leave the state unless an entitlement continues to exist under EU regulations.

In 2023, the Child Benefit Control unit completed a total of 287,000 reviews.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17 if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves.

The table below outlines Child Benefit payable to children residing outside the state from 2018 to 2023, the country of residence, number of children, number of families and the expenditure are included.

Child Benefit is payable in respect of children resident outside the state under EU legislation where at least one parent is making social security contributions in Ireland.

Please note the 2023 figure includes the Spring Cost of Living bonus of €100 per child and the December Double payment which were paid to all families.

The table below shows a breakdown Child Benefit payable to children residing outside the state from 2005 to 2017. However, the breakdown of the country of residence is not available.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Most welfare benefits require the recipient to be habitually resident in Ireland. Certain welfare benefits, such as State Pension Contributory allow the recipient, and any adult dependents such as a spouse to live outside the State.

The data requested by the Deputy for the calendar year 2023 is shown in the attached tabular statement.

Note that only a person's current country of residence is readily available in my Department's records. Due to this limitation, the table below is a record of all adult dependent allowances paid in the calendar year 2023 to people who were resident outside Ireland in January 2024. As such, it does not include payments made to people who moved to Ireland in 2023, while it includes payments made to people who lived in Ireland at the start of 2023 before moving away.

This means that the expenditure figures shown in the table are statistical estimates rather than exact figures.

While the figures for 2023 are a reasonable estimate of the true position, I regret that the data limitation noted above means that figures for earlier years cannot be presented here.

The following schemes allow for an increase for a Qualified Adult: Adoptive Parent Benefit, Back to Work Scheme, Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Blind Pension, Back to Education Program, Daily Expenses Allowance, Disability Allowance, Farm Assist, Health and Safety Benefit, Illness Benefit, Incapacity supplement, Invalidity Pension, Jobseekers Allowance, Jobseekers Benefit, Occupational Injuries Benefit, Parents Benefit, Partial Capacity Benefit, Paternity Benefit, Short Term Enterprise Allowance, State Pension Contributory, State Pension Non-Contributory, Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme and Work Placement Experience Programme. 'Expenditure' here is therefore the expenditure on Qualified Adult payments in relation to these schemes in 2023.