I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 and 33 together.
I welcome the recent ESRI report on lone parents and also the study Teen Parenting in Ireland by the National Youth Federation. The contents of these reports are being considered within my Department.
I want to outline some of the ways in which my Department is encouraging lone parents to take up work, training and study opportunities. A lone parent can take up employment and still qualify for the lone parent's allowance. The rules in relation to the means test at present allow for a disregard of earnings amounting to £6 per week, increased by a further £6 per week for each dependent child. This year, to improve the position for lone parents who want to take up work the means test is being eased. I am replacing the current earnings disregard of £6 for each child with a flat-rate disregard of £30 and, where earnings exceed the new disregards, the amount of lone parents allowance payable will be reduced by £1 for every £2 earned, instead of the £1 for £1 arrangements currently applied. These new arrangements will come into effect on 21 July next.
Child-minding expenses arising from work are also disregarded when assessing means.
Lone parents can also avail of the family income supplement scheme, subject to satisfying the qualifying criteria. The FIS scheme provides weekly cash support to families with children on low wages.
We have also included lone parents in the back-to-work allowance scheme whereby they can receive 75 per cent of their weekly payment for 12 months while they take up work, and 50 per cent in the second year, and retain their extra benefits.
From September of last year the Government extended the vocational training opportunities scheme to allow lone parents to participate while retaining all their benefits. I have also extended the third-level education scheme to eligible lone parents and any higher education grants payable are disregarded in assessing means. In addition, we have introduced a scheme of grants for projects to assist lone parents to return to second chance education or to the workforce. These represent positive measures in terms of affording lone parents who are seeking employment, a better opportunity of participating in the labour market.