Liam Burke
Question:30 Mr. L. Burke asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the response of his Department to the issues raised in the NESF report on lone parents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26871/01]
Written Answers. - Lone Parents.
Question:
58 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the measures he is taking in response to the findings of the NESF report on lone parents which shows a dramatic increase of 50% in the number of families with children under 15 years who are living in poverty. [26815/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 30 and 58 together.
The recently published NESF report on lone parents states that the poverty risk for lone parent families, defined as the number of lone parent families falling below the 50% poverty line, increased from 17% in 1987 to 29% in 1994. Recent data indicates that the risk remained at that level in 1997. I welcome the publication of the NESF report. It is a good contribution to the debate about lone parents, which I called for on the publication of my Department's review of the one-parent family payment in September 2000. In fact the conclusions of the NESF report echo to a great extent the findings of that review. However, the NESF report takes a much broader look at the issues affecting lone parents, which are dealt with across a range of Departments and agencies. Emphasis is placed on the structure of training courses and education schemes and the other supports, particularly childcare, that lone parents need to enable them to train and work. The need for pre-training courses to help build confidence and for running courses at times and locations which meet the needs of those with small children are all highlighted. Issues of housing, disincentives to marry or cohabit and the position of single fathers are also explored. The implementation of many of the NESF's recommendations are proper to other Government Departments, local authorities and agencies.
I have already taken action on many of the issues raised in the NESF report which come under the remit of my Department, including the initiation of a proactive programme of supports for one-parent family payment recipients to ensure that they are aware of the employment, education and training options available to them. It has been shown that the risk of poverty is greatly reduced where a lone parent works outside the home. The one-parent family payment is designed to allow lone parents to avail of such opportunities where they choose to. I also intend to localise the administration of the one-parent family payment scheme. In that regard a pilot project is currently under way in the Department's Tallaght office. I included provisions in the Social Welfare Act, 2001 to allow recipients of the one-parent family payment to retain 50% of maintenance received in addition to the existing disregard in respect of housing costs. In addition, the supplementary allowance scheme is currently being reviewed as part of the Department's expenditure review programme, where issues concerning rent and mortgage supplements are being addressed.
The Government is committed to increasing child benefit by £1 billion, or 1.27 billion euro, over three years. In this year's budget I provided for an increase of £25, or 31.74 euro, per month first and second children and £30, or 38.09 euro, per month for third and subsequent children. Lone parents and their children will benefit greatly from these commitments. The Government is strongly committed to eliminating poverty for all our people and in this regard recognises the particular risk of poverty faced by lone parents.