I propose to take Questions Nos. 112 to 114, inclusive, together.
The number of claimants receiving the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) stood at 93,166 on 31 May, 2011. Some 98% of claimants are women. Recipients receive payments in respect of 154,172 child dependants.
Some 57% of OFP recipients have 1 child, 28% have 2 children, 10% have 3 children and 5% have 4 children or more. Some 90% of recipients have a youngest child aged 14 years or under, 80% have a youngest child aged 11 years or under, 61% have a youngest child aged 7 years or under and 33% have a youngest child aged 3 years or under.
Lone parents generally have significantly lower levels of education than married or ohabiting parents — 13% of them have no formal qualifications compared to just 6% of other parents and a further 27% of them have only lower secondary level qualifications compared to 15% of married or cohabiting parents. Lone parents are also a lot less likely to have a third-level qualification — only 18% fall into this category compared to 34% of other parents. 58% (or almost two-thirds) of lone parents only ever attain secondary level education and no higher.
Section 12 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2011 extends existing provisions requiring that new claimants for all social welfare payments, including OFP, can be obliged to provide a range of information for profiling and activation purposes to the existing stock of social welfare recipients. Such profiling of OFP recipients, when introduced, will provide information on the educational, skills and employment background of individual claimants and can be used to better target supports to help people to return to work, education or training. Additionally, the collation of information on an individual level and on a county-by-county basis to better identify the requirements of the different cohorts within the OFP population will enable the identification of supports that are available across the service provider network.
With regard to participation in employment, it is currently estimated that some 50% of OFP recipients are in employment. Some 6,500 recipients (or 7% of the current total number of claimants) are involved in Community Employment (CE) schemes.
The total number of participants on the Back-to-Education Allowance (BTEA) scheme during the 2010/2011 academic year was 25,032 — of which 2,589 were previously in receipt of the OFP. Of these, 1,207 were on the second level option and 1,382 were on the third level option.
The Springboard Programme is a Department of Education and Skills initiative. The application process for it is still open. Information will become available from that Department in due course.
The total number of participants on the Back-to-Work Allowance (BTWA) scheme as of 24 June, 2011, stood at 11,310 — of which 357 were previously in receipt of the OFP. Of these, 96 were employees and 261 were self-employed.
As of 4 July, 2011, there were a total of 42 participants on the Work Placement Programme who are in receipt of the OFP. Since the inception of this Programme in 2009, a total of 38 individuals, who were in receipt of the OFP, have successfully secured a work placement. Placements on the Work Placement Programme must span a minimum of 25 hours or a maximum of 40 hours per week.