Working for Work : Chapter 1 : Social Welfare Payments

Your Family and Social Welfare

The Irish Social Welfare system is organised around the family. If you qualify for a social welfare payment you get a payment for yourself, which is called the 'personal rate' of payment. You may also get extra payments for adult and child dependants - called Qualified Adult and Qualified Child payments.

Qualified Adult Dependant

A qualified adult is usually your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant. You can get an allowance for your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant once they are mainly or fully supported by you.

Benefit payments:

If your Qualified Adult is earning €310.00 gross (before tax) or less per week, they will be regarded as a qualified adult for payment. If a spouse/civil partner/cohabitant earns less than €100 gross per week then you are entitled to a full Qualified Adult increase. If they earn between €100.00 and €310.00 gross (before tax) per week a reduced qualified adult payment will be given. This applies to certain benefit payments only. -

Allowance Payments:

Allowance payments are means tested, and income from Qualified Adult is assessed. See Chapter 4 for more information.

You cannot claim for your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant as a qualified adult if they are: claiming a social welfare payment* or taking part in a non-craft full-time FÁS course or designated vocational training courses.

 

 

Individual Claims:

If a couple are living together and one person is claiming a social welfare payment it does not mean that the other person has to be a qualified adult. Each person can make a claim in their own right as long as they each satisfy the conditions of the scheme. However, when the couple's individual payments are added together the total amount cannot be more than the family rate entitlement due if only one person claimed for the family. For example, Jobseeker's Allowance allows both partners to sign-on as individuals if they are both Genuinely Seeking Work - see Genuinely Seeking Work in this chapter. Although the couple will not end up with any more money, they may have more options open to them if they are both registered as unemployed.

Separate Payments:

If you are a qualified adult and you feel that your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant is not making sufficient contribution towards your maintenance you can ask at the local Social Welfare office for "separate payments". The personal rate and qualified adult rate will be added together and then split evenly between you and your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant. The full rate of any Qualified Child payments on the claim may be given in full to one of the couple.

 

 

Qualified Child Dependants

You can also claim a payment for your child dependants. If you qualify for an adult dependant increase and your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant earns up to €310 you may qualify for a full child dependant increase. If your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant earns between €310 and €400, you may qualify for half the child dependant increase. There is no upper limit on the amount of earnings a Qualified Adult may have on Invalidity Pension. This applies to Jobseeker's Benefit, Occupational Injury Benefit and Disability Benefit (Incapacity Supplement). If you are the only adult in the family you will receive a full rate of payment for your child.

You can only claim for a Qualified Child dependant until they reach the age of 18 years if you are in receipt of: -

• Jobseeker's Allowance
• Jobseeker's Benefit
• Illness Benefit - Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA)

Child Dependants in Education:

You can apply for a Qualified Child payment for a child between 18 and 22 in full-time education, up to the end of the academic year in which they reach the age of 22. This applies to the following payments: -

• Long-term Jobseeker's Allowance (after 15 months)
• Deserted Wife's Benefit, or
• Any other long-term Social Welfare payment
• Short-term payments, after six months* receiving the payment

* The six month period may be reduced in cases where you received a previous qualifying Social Welfare payment.

 

Child Dependants - One Parent Families:

The Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2010, which was enacted on 21 July 2010, provided for significant reforms to the One-Parent Family Payment (OPFP). These changes came into effect on 27 April 2011.

Under these new rules new claimants will only be paid for Child Dependants up to the age of 14. There will be no change for existing customers to their OFP entitlement for the years 2011 and 2012, provided that they continue to satisfy the conditions of payment. The age limit for receipt of payment will then reduce on an annual basis, to age 14 in 2016, as follows:

• From January 2013, payment will stop when the youngest child reaches 17 years of age. If the child is in full-time education, and aged between 17 and 22 years, payment will continue until the end of the 2012-2013 academic year.
• From January 2014, payment will stop when the youngest child reaches 16 years of age.
• From January 2015, payment will stop when the youngest child reaches 15 years of age.
• From January 2016 and beyond, payment will stop when the youngest child reaches 14 years of age.

School Leavers:

Young people who have just left school cannot sign-on for three months. In this case a family that is dependent on Social Welfare is entitled to continue to claim a Qualified Child payment until the young person can sign-on in their own right.

Last Updated: 08/09/2011 ^ back to top