More than three times as many separated parents are paying child maintenance to their former partner than was previously thought, new official figures show., writes Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent
Up until now figures suggested that just 11,000 out of 83,000 lone parents were making a contribution to reimburse the Department of Social and Family Affairs for the cost of the lone parent's allowance to their former partners.
However, a new examination of payments seen by The Irish Times shows an additional 25,000 are making contributions directly to their former partners in the form of cash contributions or indirectly by meeting the educational or recreational costs of their children.
This means more than 40 per cent of separated parents are paying maintenance for their children.
The figures, calculated by Government officials, will help inform wider Government plans to reform the welfare benefits system for lone parents.
Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan is finalising plans which would see the Government replace the lone parent's allowance with a new time-limited allowance for low-income families with young children.
After a child reaches five years of age, parents will be required to seek training or a job, and the allowance could cease after the youngest child reaches a certain age, such as eight years of age.
The move would also remove the cohabitation rule which encourages those on lone parent's allowance to live alone.
Mr Brennan says the reforms would replace poverty traps with more active supports to help lone parents take up training, education or employment opportunities. The plans have met with a mixed response from lobby groups for lone parents.
The reforms may also include a review of the way child maintenance is paid or recovered from liable parents.
The figures quoted above show the scale of non-payment among separated or absent parents is not as great as has been reported previously. Sample studies also suggest that many parents who are not paying maintenance are not liable to pay any.
For example, out of almost 17,000 cases examined by the department's maintenance recovery unit last year, just 2,500 were found to be liable and issued with orders to pay.
Around 6,500 were not liable because they earned less than a cut-off rate of €18,000, a further 2,500 were in receipt of social welfare, 2,800 were either unknown, resident outside the State or deceased, while 2,000 could not be traced. A similar number were found to be paying sufficient maintenance rates already.
In general, applicants for one-parent family payments - as the lone parent's allowance is now known - are required to make efforts to seek adequate maintenance from the parent of their child.
Similarly, absent parents have a responsibility under law to support their children and this is pursued by the department where the absent parent is not making sufficient effort to provide adequate support.