Absent parents should not be ‘off the hook’ because of payment change

Absent parents can no longer be pursued for child maintenance after the age of seven because of the unintended consequence of legislation to cut the age limit for receipt of lone parent payments from 14 to seven.

Fianna Fáil social welfare spokesman Willie O’Dea said with the changes in the lone parent payment, once a child reached seven the parent had to switch to the jobseeker’s transition payment.

Mr O’Dea said “up to now an absent parent of a child aged up to 14 years could be pursued by the State to contribute to the welfare the State is paying to the parent who is living with the child. Currently, an absent parent can only be pursued until the child has reached aged seven.”

He asked “why such people should be let off the hook? Why not put in place a provision whereby the people in question, insofar as they can be identified, can be pursued in the same way they have been pursuable up to now?”

Tánaiste Joan Burton said that last year the Department of Social Protection issued 2,586 determination orders for maintenance.

“As a result of the transfer of claimants from the one-parent family payment to the jobseeker’s transitional payment in July 2015, 134 or 5 per cent of liable relatives issued with determination orders in 2014 no longer have a liability under the scheme.”

She said her department would “review the current maintenance and liable relative procedures since the introduction of the one-parent family payment reforms”.

Highly complex

But she said it was “highly complex” and would require legislative change.

Ms Burton said “the issue of maintenance payments, first and foremost, is a private matter between the people concerned and, if they cannot solve the problem, it is a matter for the courts through family law provisions.”

“The Department’s legislative basis to issue maintenance assessments to a liable relative does not currently extend to the jobseeker’s transitional payment,” she said.

But she stressed that “this does not affect any other maintenance arrangement that may be in place between the parents”.

Ms Burton reiterated that “the matter of maintenance between a couple who are separating is primarily a matter for the courts”.

Parents who have means “should contribute to the rearing of their children and should be, as far as possible, involved in their children’s upbringing, save in circumstances where there may be issues of domestic violence and so on”.

She said this was a matter to be addressed in the context of any arrangements put in place between the two parties.

Mr O’Dea said however that he did not see any good reason why this provision could not be extended to such time as the single parent was no longer in receipt of jobseeker’s transition payments, which would be the same as applied previously.

Ms Burton reiterated that an in-depth review was under way of the legislation.” Any changes deemed necessary will require legislation, which will be brought before the House in due course.”