Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 September 2018
209. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of allowing lone parents in employment to receive both the jobseeker's transition payment and working family payment until their child has finished secondary school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39284/18]
View answer219. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of allowing lone parents in employment whose children are aged between seven and 14 years of age to receive both the jobseeker's transition payment and working family payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39312/18]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 209 and 219 together.
My Department provides a number of options for income support to lone parents once their entitlement to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) ceases. These include the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment (JST) payment where the youngest child is aged 7-13 years (inclusive) and the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over. The Working Family Payment (WFP), is also 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).
The concurrent payment of JST and WFP contradicts the policy goal of the changes to the OFP scheme, which 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.
Lone parents currently on JST who increase their working hours to 19 or more per week can transfer from JST to WFP. A lone parent in receipt of WFP is not at risk of poverty and so the goal of income adequacy is met without the need for the concurrent payment of JST and WFP.
The cost of concurrently paying JST and WFP or of increasing the age limit for a qualified child for the jobseeker's transitional payment (JST) to while the youngest child remains in secondary school is not easily estimated.
There are significant barriers to undertaking such an exercise. For example, 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.
