Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can I make a very quick point, please? The data are very useful. There is an absolute binge going on at the moment about the increase for a qualified adult, IQA. The Department is writing out to many people and I understand the way the data are got because it knows who to write to, where data matching is going on between certain accounts. Arising from that, many people are being caught where they had loving relationships; he had a good salary and they put it all into joint accounts. The irony is that we should be running a campaign to say that whatever you do, do not put the money into joint accounts but put it into the earner's name because if it is there, social welfare cannot get at it. I would love to know how many cases the Department has picked up where it is found that there have been overpayments due to this phenomenon, where I would be very interested in where this happened due to joint accounts.

It is farcical, of course, that the Department is telling couples who love each other not to share, where one was the main earner and the other was the main worker, by which I mean a carer at home. This is a big problem for people coming to pension age now where there was a common arrangement. I believe that 70% of couples were in predominantly one-income houses where, therefore, the IQA is better than any pension entitlement the spouse might have. It is a bit ironic for us to be telling them to be putting it into the one account, which is actually what one has to advise one's customers. It is very easy to legally and perfectly avoid getting caught with the IQA if savings are the problem and if the source of the savings is the primary earner, where it is very easy to sort that out. People do not realise that. What the Department could do is to put a big warning in respect of the IQA when the Department grants the pension that whatever you do, do not put it in a joint account, except where you control it under a certain amount of money, if the Department had that sort of data on its system. The Department gives us the statistics, we make the recommendations and the Department will write up on the pension grant where people must take these things on board, to help people to avoid getting caught in this unnecessarily, for doing the right thing.