2001. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the one parent family payment and JST income disregards to €250 or €285 respectively, to provide a breakdown of the cost for each; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56691/26]

The earnings disregard for both the One Parent Family Payment and the Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is €165 per week.  In addition, 50% of earnings above this figure is also disregarded in the assessment of means. The disregards have been designed to avoid cliff edges, as customers only see their payment reduce as they earn more from employment.

The full year cost of increasing the disregards across the two schemes is difficult to estimate with accuracy given labour market dynamics, wage fluctuations, and flows into, between, and out of schemes as the age of the youngest child in a household  reaches seven and 14.  It is also challenging to forecast the number of new claimants who would avail of the payment as a result of the increased disregard. Noting this, the estimated cost of such increases are approximately:

• Increasing One-Parent Family Payment disregard by €85 to €250 = €22 million

• Increasing One-Parent Family Payment disregard by €120 to €285= €32 million

• Increasing Jobseekers Transitional Payment disregard by €85 to €250 = €12.5 million

• Increasing Jobseekers Transitional Payment disregard by €120 to €285= €17.5 million

It is also important to note that increases to disregards are introduced in an overall budgetary context, and other measures introduced as part of the budget may also impact on flows into and out of schemes.