1,000 families due income top-up to be asked to apply

The Department of Social and Family Affairs is to invite 1,000 families who are eligible for income top-up payments, but have not applied for them, to do so, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

The invitation is being issued to try to find out why up to 20,000 eligible families are not taking up family income supplement (FIS).

Brian Ó Raghallaigh, assistant director general at the department, said there had been significant increases in numbers taking up FIS in the past year, but there remained a sense that many thousands of eligible households were not getting it.

FIS is a supplement paid to employed individuals with children and on low wages. The FIS "bridges" the gross actual amount earned by the household each week and a "reference" amount, set at different rates depending on how many children are in the household.

"For example, the reference amount for a lone parent or a couple with one child is €480 per week," Mr Ó Raghallaigh told the Committee on Social and Family Affairs.

The amount of FIS paid is 60 per cent of the difference between the gross earned and the reference amount, so if the one-child household earns €380 per week, the FIS payment will be €60.

Mr Ó Raghallaigh said a publicity campaign last year had led to big increases in the numbers applying for the payment.

"We were quite overwhelmed by the response," he said.

The number of new applicants, at 13,548, was 59 per cent higher last year than in 2005, and the number of households getting FIS increased by 33 per cent over last year, by 5,700 to 23,000.

He said the ESRI had reckoned the percentage of families eligible for FIS actually taking it up could be as low as 30 to 40 per cent.

"I doubt it is as low as that. However, we have decided to take 1,000 families who are eligible for the payment but who are not taking it to invite them to apply for it."

An independent company will carry out the research in which the 1,000 households will be written to, invited to apply for FIS and asked why they had not until now.

Those that do not apply will be interviewed to ascertain why they are not applying.