Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 June 2015
1. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the social impact assessment her Department has undertaken of her changes to the one-parent family payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24850/15]
View answerThe Minister will be aware that next Thursday is D-Day, where the D stands for "devastation" for the many lone parents who will suffer a substantial drop in income because of the change in the criteria for payment that she will implement on Wednesday. Has the Department carried out a social impact assessment, or an assessment of the possible effects on those who will lose out thereby?
The purpose of the reform of the one-parent family payment is to maximise the opportunities for lone parents to enter into employment and thus to increase their income. I welcome the considerable debate generated by this reform, which commenced in 2012. My priority is to ensure that as a society we arrive at a situation in which lone parents have the same opportunities as everyone else to access employment, training and education. For too long, significant numbers of lone parents have been typecast and confined to social welfare dependency. Despite the commitment of extensive funding to lone-parent payments since the 1970s, lone parents remain most at risk of poverty, and their children are at high risk of poverty. Research shows that being at work reduces the at-risk-of-poverty rate for lone parents by three quarters compared to those who do not work.
The Department has published a social impact assessment of the main welfare and tax measures of budget 2015 and of the water charges. It found that the household incomes of employed lone parents will increase by almost 0.8%, while those of unemployed lone parents will increase by 0.6%. This positive outcome for lone parents reflects the increases in child benefit, the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus, the reduction of the USC for many lone parents in work, the back-to-work family dividend and the maintenance of the disregard at €90. It has not been possible to capture the full impact of the one-parent family reforms using the Switch model. It is hoped this will be possible as part of the ongoing development of the model. For instance, the model cannot capture the value to a person on full social welfare of having a medical card, for example, compared to a person in work on a low wage who might not qualify for a medical card.
In the next budget I look forward to examining the various supports available to all families with children, including single-parent families. In particular, I want to look at the scope for further improvements in child benefit as well as other supports for families in full-time or part-time employment.
Obviously the Department has not done an assessment of the specific impact of this measure on lone parents, many thousands of whom will lose out. Apparently an impact assessment was done on the budget measures and, according to the Minister, this showed that all lone parents, working or not working, would be better off as a result of the changes being introduced by the Government. It is a wonder that lone parents from one end of the country to the other are not doing cartwheels with delight now that they are all going to be better off. I wonder what they are all worried about.
The Minister referred to the fact that there are problems in this system at present. I remind her that a problem is not solved by adding to it. The Minister gave a specific and solemn commitment to this House that she would not introduce this change until we had a Scandinavian-type child care system in this country. When I asked her about it she said that child care was a matter for another Department, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. However, this change in the criteria for lone parent allowance is a matter exclusively for herself. Does she intend to renege on the solemn promise she gave to this House and, through the House, to the lone parents from one end of this country to the other? Does she intend to renege on this promise or to keep the commitment she made to lone parents?
I very much did what I said I would do. As the Deputy is aware, because he discussed it with me, I introduced a seven-year transition from the age of seven to 14. The Deputy well knows that in this transition period we gave lone parents opportunities and encouragement to become involved in education and training - to become involved in the Department's activation services - but there is no obligation on lone parents to be actively seeking work, which is the basic requirement for jobseeker's allowance. During the seven-year transition period I hope and expect that the country will change child care very significantly for the better. We have already introduced the back-to-work family dividend scheme, in which hundreds of people have participated.
They are still losing out.
This is worth €30 a week per child to a lone parent who is returning to employment. We have provided more than €20 million for that in the budget. Through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, but with funding from the Department of Social Protection, we introduced after-school supports for parents who need after-school support. In co-operation with the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is currently examining the use of school buildings after school hours to provide after-school services for parents who may need an extra hour or two while they travel from the workplace to collect a child from school.
Sorry, Tánaiste. I will come back to you.
We also have an interdepartmental group working on child care in the context of the forthcoming budget.
These are one minute supplementary questions and answers.
The Tánaiste did not do what she said. She promised she would not introduce this change until we had a Scandinavian child care system in this country. She has not done that. The answer to my question is that she intends to renege on her promise. The Taoiseach said something yesterday which the Tánaiste has said on many occasions, namely, that many working lone parents, who ironically are the only lone parents affected by these changes, can make themselves better off by working more hours because they will then be eligible for family income supplement, FIS. Does the Tánaiste realise that lone parents are not entitled to knock on their employers' doors to demand additional hours? Even if there was such an entitlement, in many cases they could not avail of the additional hours due to the lack of affordable child care. Does she also realise that people who are in receipt of FIS because they work more than 19 hours per week will be penalised by this change? I received correspondence yesterday from somebody in the Taoiseach's constituency who is working 20 hours per week for €10 per hour and is in receipt of FIS. This person would gain exactly €15 per week for five extra hours of work, which is less than half the minimum wage. Does the Tánaiste regard that as acceptable?
As the Deputy acknowledged previously, I introduced a seven year transition from lone parents allowance to jobseeker's allowance in a context where we as a country have a job to do. I will remind the Deputy how much his Government spent on lone parents compared to how much this Government spends.
That will be cold comfort to the people who will be affected after Thursday.
In 2004, at the height of the economic boom, lone parents were 4.5 times more at risk of consistent poverty than the population as a whole.
Say that to the people who will be losing €100 per week.
In 2015, lone parents are 2.5 times more at risk of consistent poverty than the rest of the population. That is not as good as I would prefer. I would like to see the difference eliminated over time.
They should be delighted with that.
During Fianna Fáil's squander and spend days, notwithstanding the money being spent, a lone parent was 4.5 times more at risk of poverty.
Say that to the people who are sending us e-mails about the cuts to their allowances.
To take the Deputy's example, a lone parent who works 19 hours per week on the minimum wage would have an income of €165. With the changes I have made, after Fianna Fáil left lone parents to one side------
What about the ones being left to one side from next Thursday?
-----that lone parent would get €205 per week in family income supplement. If he or she had one child, he or she would get another €30.
Where is the Scandinavian child care?
We must proceed to the next question.
They would get €400 per week.
We have spent 12 minutes on this question.
She is codding herself.
