Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 October 2013
13. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on whether changes made in recent years to the one parent family payment create a disincentive to take up employment; her plans to change this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43336/13]
View answerThe number of one-parent family payment (OFP) recipients stood at 80,823 in August 2013. The expenditure on the OFP scheme was €1.06 billion in 2012 and is estimated to be €935 million in 2013. Currently 36% of OFP recipients are employed.
Despite significant levels of state spending on one-parent families, the results have been poor in terms of tackling the poverty and social exclusion among them. The on-going reforms to the OFP scheme are predicated on activation and on getting people back into the workforce once their children have reached an appropriate age.
The reforms aim to provide the necessary supports to lone parents to help them to participate in education and training, enter the workforce and, ultimately, attain financial independence.
When lone parents reaches the end of their entitlement to OFP as a result of the reforms, there are a number of income support options available to them. These include Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) and Family Income Supplement (FIS). If the individual moves to the JA scheme they then have access to the full set of Intreo services to assist them to develop their skills and enter employment. If they are entitled to the FIS, this payment incentivises them to retain or increase their employment.
In order to ease the transition to the new payment structure for lone parents with young children, a special Jobseeker’s allowance transition arrangement was put in place in July 2013. This exempts previous OFP recipients with children under 14 years of age from certain conditionality within the Jobseeker’s Allowance scheme, including the requirement to be genuinely seeking and available for full-time work. Recipients of Jobseeker’s allowance under this transition arrangement are required to engage with the full Intreo services to help them prepare for employment, while balancing their caring responsibilities. I am also pleased that I have the agreement of my colleague the Minister for Children and Youth to a new strand of the Childcare Education and Training Support Scheme which will be available for certain CE (Community Employment) participants. The new strand will be primarily for children under five of existing or new participants on the scheme who have been on the Live Register or are Lone parents. Officials from both Departments will now work closely together to agree the precise terms of the scheme.
