1946. Deputy Denise Mitchell asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will re-examine the way in which illness benefit interacts with the one-parent family payment and the working family payment in order to ensure that the income of parents who are forced to leave work due to a life-limiting illness or terminal illness are not dramatically reduced; his plans to ensure the financial security of families where a parent with a life-limiting or terminal illness is forced to leave work and rely on illness benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55192/26]

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 under PRSI classes A, E, H or P to qualify.

One Parent Family Payment is a means tested payment for lone parents, under 66, whose youngest child is under seven.

Working Family Payment, is a weekly in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. To qualify for Working Family Payment the customer must have at least one qualified child who normally resides with them and be working a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight in ongoing insurable employment.

There is a general principle of one person, one payment, which applies across the social welfare system. Given the contingency-based nature of this system, it can happen that a person may experience more than one contingency at the same time but, generally, they can receive only one payment. As an exception, One Parent Family Payment and Working Family Payment are payable concurrently where person satisfies the conditions for each scheme but Illness Benefit is generally not payable concurrently with those schemes.

However, if a person is in receipt of reduced rate One Parent Family Payment, due to means, they may also be paid a reduced rate of Illness Benefit, subject to the relevant conditions, so that the combined amount of both payments reaches the maximum rate of Illness Benefit to which they would otherwise be entitled.

In addition, customers in receipt of Working Family Payment who claim Illness Benefit are entitled to receive both payments concurrently for a period of 6 weeks. If a customer continues to receive Illness Benefit beyond this six week period, their entitlement to Working Family Payment will cease after the sixth week of the Illness Benefit payment.

With regard to additional supports, my Department also provides an Additional Needs Payment under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme to help meet essential expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. This includes certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from a person’s own resources and are deemed to be necessary. It is administered by the Department’s Community Welfare Service and can be accessed by customers through their local Intreo Office.

My Department will continue to keep its range of supports under review to ensure that they meet their overall objectives.  Any changes to the current system would need to be considered in an overall policy and budgetary context, taking account of social insurance contribution rates and the overall sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.