SOCIAL Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara wants to see Limerick City and Council scrap the inclusion of child maintenance payments as income when calculating rent on local authority homes.
The 2024 Survey on Income and Living Conditions, released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), found that 13.8 per cent of children were identified as living in child-specific enforced deprivation in 2024, an increase from 12.6 per cent in 2021.
Cllr Hickey-O’Mara considers this a “shocking indictment of how we treat some of the most vulnerable members of our society”.
“A significant number of children are being left behind by systems that are failing to protect and support them,” the City North representative said.
The CSO survey also revealed that of the thousands of children experiencing deprivation in Ireland, those living in single parent and rented homes are disproportionally affected.
The Soc Dems councillor says he wants to see support for children who are most likely to be at risk of deprivation, especially single-parent families and those renting local authority homes.
“One quarter of children in Ireland are raised by single parents with the vast majority, 86 per cent, of these single parents being women, many of whom rely on State supports to raise their children,” he said.
“We know that child maintenance, even when ordered by the court, can be inconsistent with no guarantee that it will continue until the child turns 18.”
Cllr Hickey-O’Mara said that “the average amount paid in child maintenance in this country is €40-€75, and for some children it is even less. Therefore, to consider it as ring-fenced income that single parent families will put towards paying rent on their local authority homes is myopic.”
“Continuing to consider child maintenance as income could push already vulnerable single-parent families over the income threshold for housing support and/or make their rent unaffordable.”
In response, the Council said that the removal of maintenance payments from assessable income would negatively affect income from social housing and would have to be made up by increasing rents charged to other tenants.
“Any downward adjustment to the income criteria would impact on the level of services that the Council can provide,” the local authority said.
The Council said it would undertake a cost analysis of how much rental income it would take in if child maintenance payments were to be omitted.
