WRC rejects Jaroslaw Sutowicz’s discrimination complaint over benefit refusal

The Workplace Relations Commission found that Jaroslaw Sutowicz was not discriminated against by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection after it refused his application for One-Parent Family Benefit. The decision was dated 30 March 2023. Sutowicz argued that he was treated differently from his ex-wife, who he said received the benefit, and relied on sex and family status grounds. The Department said he did not qualify because the children did not mainly live with him and he did not have their main care and charge. The adjudicator noted that the children spent 13 fewer hours a week in Sutowicz’s custody than with their mother. The decision found that the Department had applied statutory eligibility rules and that the complaint was exempt under the Equal Status Act; alternatively, discrimination was not proved. The complaint was not well founded.