Know Your Rights

Wednesday, 25th April 2012

One-Parent Family Payment

January 2012

Question

I understand that a number of changes are being made to the One-Parent Family Payment. Can you please give the details?

Answer

One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) is a payment for men and women who are bringing children up without the support of a partner. To get this payment you must meet certain conditions and you must satisfy a means test.

For 2012, the upper age limit of the youngest child for new claimants is reduced from 14 years to 12 years of age. This new upper age limit does not apply to existing claimants. It is planned to reduce the youngest child age limit for new claimants to 7 years of age on a phased basis.

The means test for OFP has been amended from January 2012. When assessing the means of both new and existing claimants, the amount of earnings from employment or self-employment that is fully disregarded is reduced from €146.50 to €130.00 per week. Half the weekly earnings over this amount continues to be disregarded.

If you have earnings above €425 you are not entitled to OFP. Up to 2012, if you had been getting OFP for a continuous period of at least 52 weeks and your earnings went above €425, you were entitled to a transitional payment. The transitional payment was the same as one-half of your rate of OFP and was paid for 6 months. From January 2012, this transitional payment is discontinued. Existing recipients of the temporary payment are not affected.

Previously, if you were working and getting OFP you might qualify for half-rate Jobseeker's Benefit, Illness Benefit or Incapacity Supplement when you stopped working. From January 2012, these half-rate payments are not available to new applicants for Jobseeker’s Benefit, Illness Benefit and Incapacity Supplement.

Further information is available from the Citizens Information Centre below.