One Parent Family Payment

Rules

To qualify for a One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) you must:

• Be under 66 (at 66 you become eligible for a State pension)
• Be the parent, step-parent, adoptive parent or legal guardian of a relevant child (this means a child under the relevant age limit - see below)
• Be the main carer of at least one relevant child. The child must live with you. OFP is not payable if the parents have joint equal custody of a child or children.
• Have earnings of €425 or less per week
• Satisfy a means test
• Be habitually resident (certain people, in particular EU nationals who are considered migrant workers, are exempt from the habitual residence condition)
• Not be living with a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting

If you are separated, divorced or your civil partnership is dissolved you must:

• Have been living apart from your spouse or civil partner for at least 3 months. This does not apply to cohabitants.
• Have made efforts to get maintenance from your spouse or civil partner (if your civil partner is the parent of the child/ren)
• Be inadequately maintained by your spouse or civil partner (if your civil partner is the parent of the child/ren)

If your spouse or civil partner is in prison:

• He/she must have been sentenced to at least 6 months in prison or have spent at least 6 months in custody.

If you were not married to the parent of your child/children you do not need to seek maintenance from the other parent when you first claim OFP. However you must make efforts to seek maintenance from the other parent to continue to be eligible for OFP.

You can read more about what making an effort to seek maintenance means for separated parents and for unmarried parents. See also 'Liability to maintain family' below.

Income from maintenance

All income from maintenance is assessed as means. This includes maintenance for you and maintenance to you for any of your children. If you are getting maintenance from more than one person all the payments are added together and the total is assessed as means. However, only half of your income from maintenance will be deducted from your OFP. If you have housing costs, your rent or mortgage repayment up to a maximum of €95.23 per week can be offset against maintenance payments. Half the balance is then assessed as means. You must provide proof of rent or mortgage payments. You can get more information on how maintenance is assessed as means.

Liability to maintain family

Men and women are required, under the law, to pay maintenance to a dependent spouse, civil partner or former cohabitant and any dependent children who are not living with them. These people are called 'liable relatives'. If you are a liable relative and fail to pay enough maintenance to your ex-spouse, ex-civil partner or former cohabitant and dependent child(ren), you must contribute to the cost of the One-Parent Family Payment, which is paid to your family.

The Maintenance Recovery Unit of the Department of Social Protection will contact the liable relative if they have not paid enough maintenance. You can contact the Maintenance Recovery Unit on (071) 967 2599 for more information. You can also find out more about ‘Liability to Maintain Family’.

One-Parent Family Payment and EU Regulations

EU citizens, EEA citizens and Swiss nationals who are employed or self-employed in Ireland and who are paying into the Irish social insurance system do not have to meet the habitual residence criteria to qualify for One-Parent Family Payment.

One-Parent Family Payment and Deserted Wife's Benefit

If you had to transfer from Deserted Wife’s Benefit to One-Parent Family Payment to be accepted as a participant on a Community Employment Scheme, you can apply to have your entitlement to Deserted Wife's Benefit restored. While Deserted Wife's Benefit is closed to new applicants, it is still paid to those who had qualified for it before 2 January 1997.

The maximum weekly rate of payment for Deserted Wife’s Benefit is higher than the maximum weekly rate of payment for One-Parent Family Payment. If you qualify to have your entitlement to Deserted Wife’s Benefit restored you may also be due arrears.

Age limit for a relevant child

To get a One-Parent Family Payment you must have at least one relevant child below 7 years of age.

Exceptions to the age limits

Domiciliary Care Allowance

If you are getting Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) for a child, you qualify for OFP on behalf of that child if you meet the other conditions. This means that you can apply for or continue to claim OFP until the child reaches 16 or DCA stops. You will also get an Increase for a Qualified Child (IQC) for any other children in the family until they reach 18 (or 22 if in full-time education) while DCA (and OFP) is in payment.

Carer’s Allowance

People parenting alone, who care for one of their children or for an adult (such as a parent or a sibling) can now qualify for both OFP and half-rate Carer’s Allowance, provided that their youngest child is aged under 16 years. This means that you can claim OFP and a half-rate Carer’s Allowance (CA) until your youngest child turns 16 provided you continue to meet the conditions for both schemes. You will also get an Increase for a Qualified Child (IQC) for any other children in the family until they reach 18 (or 22 if in full-time education) while CA and OFP is in payment.

If you were previously getting both OFP and half-rate CA, and were affected by the OFP age change reforms, you are now eligible to re-apply for both payments.

Death of a spouse, partner or civil partner

If you are a new claimant and you are parenting alone because of the death of your spouse, partner or civil partner you may get OFP for 2 years from the date of death provided your youngest child is under 18. You cannot be paid OFP after your youngest child reaches 18 even if that is less than 2 years after the date of death.

Blind Pension

Blind Pension is payable with OFP. This means that a person who qualifies for OFP and Blind Pension can get both payments at the full rate. People who qualify for Blind Pension will be exempted from the age conditions for OFP. This means that you can claim both Blind Pension and OFP (and any IQCs payable with both Blind Pension and OFP) together until your youngest child is 16 years of age.

What happens when my One Parent Family payment ends?

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection will inform you of the date of termination of your payment and will outline options under other schemes and supports which may be available to you. The document Transition from One-Parent Family Payment also outlines your options. You may qualify for the Jobseeker's Transitional payment. This is a payment for people parenting alone whose children are aged between 7 and 13 (inclusive).

In all cases you can get more information and advice about your options from your local Intreo Centre or Social Welfare Branch Office or Citizens Information Centre.

One-Parent Family Payment and work

You can work and get One-Parent Family Payment. The amount of payment you get depends on your weekly means.

Income disregards

• The first €110 of your gross weekly earnings is not taken into account (or disregarded). This means that you can earn up to €110 per week and qualify for the full One-Parent Family Payment.
• Half the remainder of your gross earnings up to €425 per week is assessed as means. If you earn between €110 and €425 per week you may qualify for a reduced payment. SW 19 Social Welfare Rates of Payment booklet shows the amount of OPF payable with your means.

Social insurance contributions, superannuation/PRSA contributions and trade union subscriptions are not taken into account in the assessment of earnings. However, your gross earnings must be below €425 before any deductions are allowed.

Additional supports

You may qualify for Family Income Supplement (FIS), if you are working for at least 19 hours a week (38 hours a fortnight). You can continue to claim One-Parent Family Payment and your FIS payment is not counted as means. Find out more about Family Income Supplement.

If you want to become self-employed, you may qualify for the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance.

New participants on CE schemes cannot get OFP at the same time. However if you take part in a CE scheme and return immediately to OFP from the CE scheme your entitlement is based on your original start date.

If your pay from work is reduced

You may be entitled to an increase in your One-Parent Family Payment if your pay is reduced. To get an increase in your One-Parent Family Payment send a current payslip (showing your reduced pay) with a letter from your employer, confirming your new work situation, to the Intreo Centre or Social Welfare Branch Office dealing with your claim.

If your pay is reduced and you are getting Family Income Supplement (FIS), your FIS payment will stay the same. If the number of hours you work each week is reduced to below 19 hours (38 hours per fortnight), you are no longer entitled to FIS. You should notify the FIS section if the hours you work fall below the minimum requirement.

You may be entitled to an increase in your Rent Supplement. If you are on the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), you should contact your local authority to find out if you are entitled to a reduction in your weekly HAP rent contribution. If you rent from a local authority or housing association you should contact them to find out if you are entitled to a reduction in your rent. If you are not getting a medical card or GP visit card you should find out if you now qualify.

Credited contributions

If you were receiving Maternity Benefit immediately before getting OFP you will get credited contributions. You can read more about credited contributions in the Operational Guidelines for OFP.

One Parent Family Payment and education or training

You will need to assess whether it is more beneficial for you to transfer from the One-Parent Family Payment to the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) when you go back to education or to remain on your current payment and apply for a student grant.

If you have returned to education and had opted to keep your One-Parent Family Payment (instead of BTEA) you may be admitted to BTEA ‘mid-course’ if you no longer qualify for OFP because of recent changes in the age limits. However you cannot get BTEA and a student grant together. Read more in our document on social welfare payments and student grants.

You could do a FET (formerly FÁS) training course and keep your One-Parent Family Payment.