Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 September 2018
217. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the jobseeker's transitional payment until the youngest child is 18 years of age and until a child finishes secondary school, respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39310/18]
View answerThe policy goal of the changes to the OFP scheme were to tackle long-term social welfare dependency - and its associated poverty risks - through a tapering of income supports and a more active engagement process offering enhanced educational, training and employment supports.
My Department continues to provide a range of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment ceases. These include the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over, and the Working Family Payment (WFP), available to lone parents who are working 19 or more hours per week. Lone parents who move to WFP may also apply for the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD).
There are significant barriers to accurately estimating the cost of extending the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) until the youngest child is eighteen years of age, and until a child finishes secondary school. For example, some customers may no longer be within the welfare system, while others could seek to move from alternative payments such as Jobseekers Allowance (JA), the Working Family Payment (WFP) and the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD) back to JST. It would be difficult for my Department to estimate the magnitude of this flow into and between schemes with any degree of accuracy.
Likewise, the number of young people 18 years of age and over who are still in secondary education, and the proportion of those who are the children of lone parents in receipt of benefits is not readily available or easily estimated. As these unknown factors are critical to providing a reliable costing my Department is not in a position to provide the costing requested.
