2111. Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider increasing and index-linking the income disregard for the one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s transitional payment in Budget 2027; the number of recipients who would benefit from such a measure; and the estimated cost. [63914/26]

The earnings disregard for both the One Parent Family Payment and the Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is €165 per week. In addition, a taper is applied, 50% of earnings above this figure are also disregarded in the assessment of means. The disregards and taper have been designed to avoid cliff edges, as customers only see their payment reduce as they earn more from employment. There are approximately 15,000 recipients of One Parent Family Payment or Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment with earnings exceeding the €165 disregard.

It is not possible to cost a disregard increase based on the details provided. Additional information would be required, such as: the measure the disregards are to be indexed to, how changes to the indexed rate are to be tracked (for example, directly or based on bands), how often the disregards are to be reviewed and how any increase or decrease is to be applied to individual customer's weekly payments.

More generally, estimating with accuracy the cost of changing the disregards is difficult 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 any proposed change introduced.