Government lays down rules on family spending
Ministers offered some examples of what it regarded as reasonable monthly expenses, including:
- A single adult with no car allowed €900 a month, with €247 on food, €136 on public transport, €35 on clothes, €105 on heating and electricity, €31 on health, €43 on communications and also for savings;
- A working adult with a car would be allowed €1,030 a month with the same spend on food, clothes, heat and light, health, and the same on communications and for savings, plus €240 for the car;
- A working single parent with no car is found to need €898 plus €242 for an infant, €77 for a child in pre-school, €217 for a child of primary school age and €430 for a secondary school child;
- With the car, the family is allowed an extra €253 with the breakdown also showing heat and electricity worth €144, plus an extra €5 for an infant, €219 for food for the parent and €133 for the baby and anywhere from €103 to €213 for the other children;
- A couple with children but no car are allowed €1,306 plus €242 for a baby, €46 for pre-school children, €177 for primary, and €379 for any in secondary school;
- With the car it jumps to €1,360 and the overall limit allows €157 for parents social inclusion or €7 for babies, €10 for pre-schoolers,€50 for primary, and €93 for secondary;
- A childless couple with no car have been given a standard threshold of €1,438, including €364 for food and €65 for savings;
- With a car, that changes by just €3 and also allows for €65 on personal care, €50 on health, €230 on social inclusion, and €146 on light and heat.
The three debt solutions will be open to applicants at the end of June.
They are:
- Debt Relief Notice, which will apply to people with debts below €20,000,a low income and few assets.
It can include some secured and unsecured debts — such as credit card loans,utility bills, store cards and personal loans.
It will normally last three years, during which time unsecured creditors cannot take legal or debt collection action against the individual. Money owed to the creditors named in the DRN will be cleared after three years, provided all agreed conditions are met.
- Debt Settlement Arrangement, which will be available to those with unsecured debts.
It allows an individual to pay off what they can of their debts over five years, with the remainder written off at the end of that period.
- Personal Insolvency Arrangement applies to those with unsecured and secured debts — such as their mortgage — up to the value of €3m.
