388. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the interaction between illness benefit, one-parent family payment and working family payment for parents who have dependent children and who are diagnosed with a terminal or life-limiting illness; and to consider measures to prevent a significant loss of household income when such parents are no longer able to work due to their illness. [66465/26]

389. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Social Protection whether his Department has examined the adequacy of income supports available to lone parents with dependent children who are unable to continue working due to a terminal or life-limiting illness; and if he will outline any proposals under consideration to prevent such families from experiencing a sharp reduction in income when transitioning from employment to illness-related supports. [66464/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 388 and 389 together.

My Department provides two primary income supports for lone parents, the One-Parent Family Payment and the Jobseeker's Transitional Payment.

One-Parent Family Payment is a payment for lone parents, under 66, whose youngest child is under seven. Jobseeker's Transitional Payment is a special arrangement under the Jobseeker’s Allowance scheme that is available to lone parents under 66, whose youngest child is aged 7 to 13 years inclusive.

The personal rate of One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment is €254 a week. There is also an increase for each child, under the Child Support Payment of €78 for each child aged 12 and over, and €58 for those under 12.

If a person qualifies for the One-Parent Family Payment or Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment based on the youngest child in the family but they also have older children, then payment of the Child Support Payment for each of the other children will continue, until they reach 18 years or 22 years if they are in full-time education.

The means tests for both schemes includes a disregard for earnings from employment. Firstly, €165 per week of earnings are completely disregarded in the assessment of means and secondly a 50% taper is applied to all earnings above this figure, that is half of any earnings above €165 are also disregarded in the assessment of means. The disregards have been designed to avoid cliff edges, and recipients only see their payment reduce as they earn more from employment.

Working Family Payment, is a weekly in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. The Working Family Payment may be paid concurrently with One-Parent Family payment. To qualify for Working Family Payment a person 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.

I understand that the issue raised by the Deputy is extremely challenging. Officials in my Department are always available to offer further guidance, support and information regarding potential entitlements.

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 the overall sustainability of the system.