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Child Item

Single Parent's Allowance what to pay mother?

corigi

Hey guys my girlfriend last week just gave birth to our first child.She is 22 and living at home with her parents.She is going to be taking care of the child so wont be working for the time been.I currently am in full time employment and earning 24k per year.The social welfare office have requested i write a letter with how much mainteance i am going to pay her per week?

My question is how much should i tell them?? i not sure how much i should be paying as i goin to be paying for the child stuff etc and top of giving her money.I dont want to tell them too much as i dont want her social cut for no reason as we cant afford it to be cut.I dont want to tell them too little either as i dont want the hassle of them coming after me anyone with any experience dealing with this your help be much appreciated in advance.

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donutheadhomer

axel rose wrote: »

Folks, the Ops girlfriend is not a single parent. The couple simply choose not to live together.

OPFA is for men and women who are raising children alone. I suggest the OP lives with his new family and apply for FIS.

indeed, being a lone parent is not a lifestyle choice or living arrangement alteration: rather it is a physical reality of being a "lone" parent.

axel rose

Folks, the Ops girlfriend is not a single parent. The couple simply choose not to live together.

OPFA is for men and women who are raising children alone. I suggest the OP lives with his new family and apply for FIS.

cee_jay

wellieboot wrote: »

From the SW website

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 it will be added together and the total will be assessed as means. However, 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 and your social welfare payment will be reduced by that amount. You must provide proof of rent or mortgage payments. You can get more information on how maintenance is assessed as means.

Reanne see the above on how maintenance is assessed. Just because it does not affect your payment do not mean it won't affect someone else's payment. There are offsets for rent/mortgage payments.

ReanneD

Just because maintainance is counted as means it does not mean it will affect your weekly payment, only that it will be included in your means test when your claim is being processed. If your only means is maintainance it does not affect your lone parent payment, the same way you can earn means of up to 150euro from working without it affecting your payment. And by the way, I am 100% honest with stating all of my means and maintainance never affected any of my payment until I moved into my own house.

analbeads

ReanneD wrote: »

I know this because I am on lone parent allowance myself and whoever told you dat maintainance under 150 a week affects her weekly payment hasnt a clue what there on about

i am 100% sure you loose 50% of what you recieve from your lone parents, im on lone parents aswell so i do know what im on about thanks very much !! so either you dont declare the maintenance you recieve to social welfare or there has being a mistake made in your claim

look up the social welfare website

ReanneD

analbeads wrote: »

where are you getting this information??
if he gives her €150 a week her lone parent alloance will be cut by €75. from €225.80 to €150.80

I know this because I am on lone parent allowance myself and whoever told you dat maintainance under 150 a week affects her weekly payment hasnt a clue what there on about

cee_jay

EurasianBadger wrote: »

What would be wrong with this? A lot of mothers work full or partime and is not unusual and should be encouraged. Being a lone parent should not be a reason to not look for work - being a lone parent is not a life sentence or a reason to not work.

I never said she wasn't - just that she would have to be to claim a Jobseeker's payment as the OP stated in his first post:

corigi wrote: »

She is going to be taking care of the child so wont be working for the time been.

Which would suggest she is currently not looking for work.

donutheadhomer

cAr0l wrote: »

But she needs to be available and looking for full time work, which you don't have to be with One Parent Family.

What would be wrong with this? A lot of mothers work full or partime and is not unusual and should be encouraged. Being a lone parent should not be a reason to not look for work - being a lone parent is not a life sentence or a reason to not work.

analbeads

ReanneD wrote: »

If u give her anything under 150 a week it wont be deducted from her lone parents which she is certainly entitled to. Any maintainance u give her will not affect her payment but will be taken off any rent allowance she may get if she decides 2 get a place of her own. Hope dat helps

where are you getting this information??
if he gives her €150 a week her lone parent alloance will be cut by €75. from €225.80 to €150.80

Shelli2

Maintenance will certainly be deducted from loan parents.

My ex gives me €50 per week, they take €25 from my loan parents. €50 seems the norm amount to give, enough to stop them hassling you and too little to really affect your payments.

wellieboot

From the SW website

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 it will be added together and the total will be assessed as means. However, 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 and your social welfare payment will be reduced by that amount. You must provide proof of rent or mortgage payments. You can get more information on how maintenance is assessed as means.

ReanneD

If u give her anything under 150 a week it wont be deducted from her lone parents which she is certainly entitled to. Any maintainance u give her will not affect her payment but will be taken off any rent allowance she may get if she decides 2 get a place of her own. Hope dat helps

Demonique

corigi wrote: »

5. I certainly aint looking to maximise our benifits i making sure we dont get robbed as far as im concerned it seems to be the people that tell the truth and try to be honest that get robbed.While other people get everything paid for them houses,fridges,tv everything while we seem not to be entitled to hardly anything based on a 24k wage?

You're NOT being robbed, it's called NOT DEFRAUDING THE STATE

There are people who are in a lot worse situation than you are, if people are defrauding the state it could ultimately mean that less money goes to those who really need it. A lot of people defrauding the state could mean that benefits get cut for everyone

changes

I'm surprised they are asking you what you intend to pay as then will decide themselves if its enough.

What are your own circumstances, you are allowed rent of 95pw, 196 living costs and 26 for the child expenses from their calculations. So thats 315 if you earn 415 they could take 100 off you.

If you are living with your parents and earning 415 they will prob still just take 100 off you. It seems to be a limit. If you were earning 50 or 60K they might take more.

If i were you i'd offer 50 to start.

billy the squid

pkav1 wrote: »

Maybe you should thought about all this before you got pregnant. Thats the probelm with people now adays, have a baby and then think how much you can get outta the state or how you can afford to look after it. Anyways I hope the baby is healthy and wish you the best.

7 day ban and infraction

DebDynamite

analbeads wrote: »

dosent always work.

sometimes its hard to know if the condom had a little split, if

someone is on the pill then they think they are covered so do you suggest that every woman in the country takes the morning after pill every time they have protected sex? do you do that

some girls cant afford to go to the doctor and pay for this pill, not everyone has a medical card

a woman that was taken advantage of while drunk/passed out may not even realise that she was raped?

even when a family plans to have children, they may break up or one may die leaving a lone parent that cannot fully support their kids without help from the state.

Yes, the morning after pill isn't 100% effective. As it should also only be used as emergency contracetion, other methods of contraception should have been used in the first place.

If an unwanted pregnancy would mean financial disaster for someone, perhaps they should use two forms of contraception together, eg Pill & condoms, just in case. You would have to be very unlucky if you got pregant using those two forms of contraception correctly.

Your last two examples are legimate cases and I would only be too happy for my tax to go towards supporting them.

Anyway, this is going off topic.

analbeads

DebDynamite wrote: »

Morning after pill

dosent always work.
sometimes its hard to know if the condom had a little split, if
someone is on the pill then they think they are covered so do you suggest that every woman in the country takes the morning after pill every time they have protected sex? do you do that
some girls cant afford to go to the doctor and pay for this pill, not everyone has a medical card
a woman that was taken advantage of while drunk/passed out may not even realise that she was raped?
even when a family plans to have children, they may break up or one may die leaving a lone parent that cannot fully support their kids without help from the state.

DebDynamite

analbeads wrote: »

some couples try and be as safe as can be but condoms split, the pill isnt always effective and what about girls that get raped and end up pregnant and cant support the child?

Morning after pill

analbeads

pkav1 wrote: »

Maybe you should thought about all this before you got pregnant. Thats the probelm with people now adays, have a baby and then think how much you can get outta the state or how you can afford to look after it. Anyways I hope the baby is healthy and wish you the best.

what a complete fool u are!!
op didnt say that him and his gf had planned to get pregnant, these things happen. 1000's of babies are unplanned each year due to accidents with contraceptions, maybe your parents hadnt planned you!
some couples try and be as safe as can be but condoms split, the pill isnt always effective and what about girls that get raped and end up pregnant and cant support the child?

pkav1

Maybe you should thought about all this before you got pregnant. Thats the probelm with people now adays, have a baby and then think how much you can get outta the state or how you can afford to look after it. Anyways I hope the baby is healthy and wish you the best.

Shelli2

They certainly do take reltionship status into account and not just living arrangements. When I had my home visit for LP the SW officer interogated me on why my ex left me, to the pointof nearly shouting at me, had me in tears. Kept demanding to know why we split up and when I answered it was his choice not mine, he just wouldn't take that as an answer and kept pushing until I had to tell him word for word (through my tears) how my ex had told me he didn't love me anymore.

be very careful of getting caught in the LP trap, it'd hard to get off that benefit once your on it, you GF would be much better off applying for jobseekers as soon as her maternity benefit ends. As pointed out above, because she is a mother, her age is not an issue. Also, as long as she if fit and healthy, I see no reason she shouldn't be available for "suitable" work, ie work that will pay enough to cover childcare, or a working place that provides childcare, or hours that would suit if her parents or you were to mind the baby. And whatever your giving her will not be taken into account, so she'll get more.

she could also consider doing a course, I know alot of the Fas courses have childcare for lone parents.

Hope everything works out for you.

Sig467

analbeads wrote: »

she is seen as a lone parent as they are not married. a person can claim lone parent if they were married but have seperated or if your spouse goes to prison
at one stage i think it was called unmarried mothers allownance

if they move in together then she is no longer seen as a lone parent

Ok so they consider practical living arrangements as well as being in a relationship. Thanks

analbeads

Sig467 wrote: »

If she is your current girlfriend how is she considered a lone parent? (I'm not trying to be smart, I genuinely would like to know how that works.)

she is seen as a lone parent as they are not married. a person can claim lone parent if they were married but have seperated or if your spouse goes to prison
at one stage i think it was called unmarried mothers allownance

if they move in together then she is no longer seen as a lone parent

analbeads

cAr0l wrote: »

But she needs to be available and looking for full time work, which you don't have to be with One Parent Family.

op has mentioned that his girlfriend isnt entilted to full dole as she is living at home so there has obviously being some talk about the option of her claiming jobseekers allowance.

and she still has the option of claiming lone parents for a short amount of time and then moving to jobseekers if herself and the op wanted to move in together and i just wanted to let the op know that, the information/figures he had on the amount his gf would be entilted to if she were to claim jobseekers is wrong

Sig467

corigi wrote: »

2.Yes she is my current girlfriend.

If she is your current girlfriend how is she considered a lone parent? (I'm not trying to be smart, I genuinely would like to know how that works.)

cee_jay

analbeads wrote: »

i have just looked up the social welfare website about the jobseekers and since your girlfriend has a dependant child she will automatically recieve the full rate €196 and 29.80 per child which is the same €225.80 as she would get on lone parents! and still get child benefit of €150 a month

she can still live at home and her parents wont be assesed as she and the child are seen as a 'seperate family unit'. if you go the lone parent option ye will be loosing €25 a week thru the calculation of means based on you paying €50 a week maintenance. that €25 could be put aside for the little one future

hope this helps

But she needs to be available and looking for full time work, which you don't have to be with One Parent Family.

analbeads

currently lone parents allowance is €225.80 for a mother with one child and child benefit is €150 per month.
if you were to give her €50 a week half of that is assesed as means so €25 would be taken off her allowance so she would recieve €200.80 in lone parents and €50 off you so leaving her with €250.80.

i have just looked up the social welfare website about the jobseekers and since your girlfriend has a dependant child she will automatically recieve the full rate €196 and 29.80 per child which is the same €225.80 as she would get on lone parents! and still get child benefit of €150 a month

she can still live at home and her parents wont be assesed as she and the child are seen as a 'seperate family unit'. if you go the lone parent option ye will be loosing €25 a week thru the calculation of means based on you paying €50 a week maintenance. that €25 could be put aside for the little one future

hope this helps

padma

sit down and work out your weekly income and living expenses, cut corners where you can, quit drinking for a few months etc. then work out how much you can afford for your little baby. Then give that money to your girlfriend every week without fail. Write the letter to your welfare office with your statement of means on it and how much you can afford for your baby and let it be. Open a credit union account and slip a few bob in there weekly for the rainy day and Christmas which is only around the corner.

Congratulations

corigi

adrieanne__x wrote: »

I was just giving it as an example, whatever you give her whether it be 25 or 50 or 100 euro will be deducted from her benefits.

Oh sound no worries cheers for your help much appreciated.

January

corigi wrote: »

Cheers for the reply missed this somehow but the answers you gave is what i was looking for.I have no intention of defrauding in any means but considering i go to pay for nappies food and other stuff i dont see why they will be cutting everything on top of that.But 25euro per week seems very low.

I was just giving it as an example, whatever you give her whether it be 25 or 50 or 100 euro will be deducted from her benefits.