SW Payment & Maintenance

miss missey

Hi everyone

I've been receiving Supplementary Welfare Allowance for the last few months (I'm currently waiting on a different payment). I get €186 for myself, and €29.80 each for my 3 children. During this time, I began to receive maintenance of €30 for one of my children.

After I informed SW of this change my payment went from €275.40 to €245.40. They essentially just deducted the €30 maintenance from my payment. I don't receive any other income.

Is this the correct amount I should be receiving?

Thanks

JustAThought

miss missey wrote: »

Hi everyone

I've been receiving Supplementary Welfare Allowance for the last few months (I'm currently waiting on a different payment). I get €186 for myself, and €29.80 each for my 3 children. During this time, I began to receive maintenance of €30 for one of my children.

After I informed SW of this change my payment went from €275.40 to €245.40. They essentially just deducted the €30 maintenance from my payment. I don't receive any other income.

Is this the correct amount I should be receiving?

Thanks

No. I think you husband / partner should be paying a lot more than e30 for the welfare, food, rent, clothing, schooling, transport and social upkeep of his children.

miss missey

JustAThought wrote: »

No. I think you husband / partner should be paying a lot more than e30 for the welfare, food, rent, clothing, schooling, transport and social upkeep of his children.

Believe me I know! But I was under the impression that if I receive more from him, it will just be deducted from my payment and I will not gain anything.

infogiver

miss missey wrote: »

Believe me I know! But I was under the impression that if I receive more from him, it will just be deducted from my payment and I will not gain anything.

No you won't gain anything.
You are, like everyone else, only entitled to the basic rate of SWA which is what you are getting right now.
You are obliged to inform the CWO if your circumstances change ( for instance if you receive maintenance) so that your SWA can be adjusted downwards.
You need to sit down with your children's father and sort out proper maintenance.
Much better for everyone if you and he are each supporting your children as much as you can.

ShaShaBear

infogiver wrote: »

No you won't gain anything.
You are, like everyone else, only entitled to the basic rate of SWA which is what you are getting right now.
You are obliged to inform the CWO if your circumstances change ( for instance if you receive maintenance) so that your SWA can be adjusted downwards.
You need to sit down with your children's father and sort out proper maintenance.
Much better for everyone if you and he are each supporting your children as much as you can.

I think what the OP is concerned about is that if she gets more money from her ex, then her SW payment will just drop by that amount. Ergo she isn't any better off or receiving any more support as she has the same amount of money as she did to begin with.

Loveinapril

miss missey wrote: »

Believe me I know! But I was under the impression that if I receive more from him, it will just be deducted from my payment and I will not gain anything.

You won't 'gain' any more money but your child's father will be contributing to their upbringing instead of you needing the state to do it.

infogiver

ShaShaBear wrote: »

I think what the OP is concerned about is that if she gets more money from her ex, then her SW payment will just drop by that amount. Ergo she isn't any better off or receiving any more support as she has the same amount of money as she did to begin with.

Why would she think that she should be "any better off" though?

ShaShaBear

infogiver wrote: »

Why would she think that she should be "any better off" though?

I imagine she thought that the money her ex gave her would be extra to the payment as in the state gives her X payment for her children and her partner gives her more. People with little experience on maintenance or being a single mother could easily not know.

infogiver

SWA is a kind of an emergency payment that you get while you are waiting for a claim for another more permanent payment to be processed.
You can only get it if you really have very little or nothing to get by on.
The rate is €186 for the claimant €124 for a dependent adult and €29.80 for each child.
If you get any kind of income, like maintenance from the other parent of the child, then that amount is deducted € for € from the SWA.
If the OP gets OPFP (she might have applied for it) then the maintenance will be treated differently depending on rent/mortgage etc.

amcalester

ShaShaBear wrote: »

I imagine she thought that the money her ex gave her would be extra to the payment as in the state gives her X payment for her children and her partner gives her more. People with little experience on maintenance or being a single mother could easily not know.

With 3 kids she should make it her business to know.

infogiver

ShaShaBear wrote: »

I imagine she thought that the money her ex gave her would be extra to the payment as in the state gives her X payment for her children and her partner gives her more. People with little experience on maintenance or being a single mother could easily not know.

She and her ex have the responsibility to provide for the children that they decided to have together.
The State will only supplement that up to a certain level, and nowadays only for a certain length of time.
Believe me it is better for everyone in the long run including both parents, kids and the State if couples acknowledge this and take responsibility from the earliest possible opportunity.
The happiest healthiest kids I know are those where both parents are contributing as best they possibly can to the maintenance of their kids with as little input from the State as possible

ShaShaBear

amcalester wrote: »

With 3 kids she should make it her business to know.

I have two kids and I have absolutely no idea how to go about claiming as a single mother and getting maintenance as I am married to the father. Generally, women won't look into these kinds of things until they need to. The OP doesn't say how long she has split from her ex, or how long she has been trying to seek maintenance. Incredibly presumptuous of you.

infogiver wrote: »

She and her ex have the responsibility to provide for the children that they decided to have together.
The State will only supplement that up to a certain level, and nowadays only for a certain length of time.
Believe me it is better for everyone in the long run including both parents, kids and the State if couples acknowledge this and take responsibility from the earliest possible opportunity.
The happiest healthiest kids I know are those where both parents are contributing as best they possibly can to the maintenance of their kids with as little input from the State as possible

And some of the happiest, healthiest kids I know are in a "broken home" with no sign of one parent and completely reliant on state funding. That's anecdotal at best. Again, the OP never said how long she has been split from her ex and it is altogether possible she only started receiving this payment when he did and is only finding out how maintenance affects it now because she is only getting maintenance now!

I fully agree that both parents should fund their choice to have a child where possible, but to suggest that her children will be less happy or healthy if she relies on the state for any reason is just preposterous!

infogiver

ShaShaBear wrote: »

I have two kids and I have absolutely no idea how to go about claiming as a single mother and getting maintenance as I am married to the father. Generally, women won't look into these kinds of things until they need to. The OP doesn't say how long she has split from her ex, or how long she has been trying to seek maintenance. Incredibly presumptuous of you.


And some of the happiest, healthiest kids I know are in a "broken home" with no sign of one parent and completely reliant on state funding. That's anecdotal at best. Again, the OP never said how long she has been split from her ex and it is altogether possible she only started receiving this payment when he did and is only finding out how maintenance affects it now because she is only getting maintenance now!

I fully agree that both parents should fund their choice to have a child where possible, but to suggest that her children will be less happy or healthy if she relies on the state for any reason is just preposterous!

We will have to agree to differ.
When DSP announced that OPFP would end for claimants when the youngest child reached 7, there was much weeping and wailing from Lone parents associations such as Cherish.
They predicted latch key children rooting through bins while the resident parent worked his/her fingers to the bone in the local Chinese laundry.
Of course no such thing has happened.
Lone parents were always well capable of organising their lives around work/school/training and parenting.
They just needed information about what alternative benefits were available to working parents.
What I'd like to see now is far more rigorous enforcing of maintenance orders against the absent parent.

boardsuser1

infogiver wrote: »

We will have to agree to differ.
When DSP announced that OPFP would end for claimants when the youngest child reached 7, there was much weeping and wailing from Lone parents associations such as Cherish.
They predicted latch key children rooting through bins while the resident parent worked his/her fingers to the bone in the local Chinese laundry.
Of course no such thing has happened.
Lone parents were always well capable of organising their lives around work/school/training and parenting.
They just needed information about what alternative benefits were available to working parents.
What I'd like to see now is far more rigorous enforcing of maintenance orders against the absent parent.

What is happening now is people with children 7 and older are getting pregnant again all of a sudden after all those years, in one case I know of that occurred the then youngest was 15, the law changed and boom, she was pregnant all of a sudden.



As for maintenance, I pay it through the court to my ex, she is then docked money from the welfare.

She hid it from the local authority who found out and they upped her rent and backdated it.

Short term gain has now resulted in long term financial pain for her.

The welfare asked me for evidence of paying maintenance as well on more than one occasion through the court for one child and a letter from the mother of the others even though she's not on welfare.