Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 June 2014
292. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection if the new regulations applicable to recipients of one parent family allowance whose child/children are now over 16 years of age will result in a deduction in the level of income made up by part-time work and family income supplement or other source; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26999/14]
View answerIn May the number of one-parent family payment (OFP) recipients stood at 77,209 and the cost of the OFP scheme in 2014 is estimated to be €863 million. Despite significant levels of State spending on the OFP scheme, the results have been poor in terms of tackling poverty and social exclusion rates among lone parent families, who continue to experience higher rates of ‘consistent poverty’ in comparison to the population generally. The passive nature of the payment with little systematic engagement being made by the State with recipients has engendered long-term social welfare dependency and associated poverty among one-parent families.
The reforms to the OFP scheme aim to address these issues by providing the necessary supports to lone parents to help them to escape inter-generational poverty and joblessness, The Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2012, contains provisions to reduce, on a phased basis, the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which an OFP recipient’s payment ceases to 7 years from 2014 for new entrants and from 2015 for existing recipients.
The next phase of the OFP age reductions will take place on 3 July 2014 when it is expected approximately 5,140 customers will leave the OFP scheme on that date. The Department has contacted all affected customers and has invited them to attend information seminars or one-to-one sessions in their respective Social Welfare Local Office. The purpose of these sessions is to brief affected lone parents on the broad range of income and other supports, which the Department provides.
Special arrangements have been introduced to ease affected lone parents make the transition to another income support payment. For instance, affected OFP customers who are also in receipt of the Family Income Supplement (FIS) will have their FIS payment automatically adjusted to take account for approximately 60% of their loss of OFP. However, it is expected that the majority of affected customers will apply for the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment. As 64% of the existing OFP population do not work it is expected that the majority of customers will suffer no loss in income when they make the transition from OFP to JA.
However, in cases where customers are employed and have earnings in excess of €60 per week, they will see a reduction in their weekly social welfare payment should they make the transition from OFP to JA. The reason for this reduction is the difference in the earnings disregards between the two payments. OFP recipients receive an earnings disregard of €90 per week while the JA equivalent is €60 per week. In addition, the OFP taper for amounts in excess of the disregard is 50% while JA has a higher taper of 60%. The table depicts the losses of income when a lone parent with one child who is working moves from OFP to JA.
|
Earnings |
OFP |
JA |
Total OFP income (earnings + OFP) |
Total JA income (earnings + JA) |
Total income entitlement loss |
|
€0.00 |
€217.80 |
€217.80 |
€217.80 |
€217.80 |
€0.00 |
|
€100.00 |
€217.80 |
€193.80 |
€317.80 |
€293.80 |
€24.00 |
|
€200.00 |
€170.30 |
€133.80 |
€370.30 |
€333.80 |
€36.50 |
|
€300.00 |
€120.30 |
€73.80 |
€420.30 |
€373.80 |
€46.50 |
Former OFP recipients, who avail of a jobseeker’s payment, are required to engage fully with the Department’s activation process. These customers will be assigned a case officer who will work with the customer and jointly develop a personal progression plan. The aim of this plan is to increase the customer’s skills and job-readiness and assist their entry into the workforce.
