Vol. 531 No. 3
28 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will develop a nationwide scheme to help teenage parents; if he will ensure such parents are eligible for return to work or return to education schemes; if he will provide new allowances for such parents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5566/01]
Following the publication of the review of the one parent family payment in September 2000, I initiated a programme to ensure recipients are fully aware of the various supports which are available to them in the areas of education, training and employment. This programme includes a number of elements, including dissemination of information on entitlements and a closer engagement with lone parents to help them avail of these supports.
The programme is at an early stage and involves the Department's jobs facilitators providing individual interviews for lone parents to discuss future job, education, training or development requirements. The programme is being introduced on a phased basis, concentrating initially on one parent family payment recipients with older children. In this regard, about 2,500 people will be invited for interview. My Department is also planning to localise the administration of the scheme from the pensions services office in Sligo to its local offices, and this will bring lone parents into closer contact on an ongoing basis with the various support services available in the Department's offices. It is expected a pilot scheme will be in place later this year.
In addition, pilot family services projects are under way in three local offices of my Department in Dublin, Cork and Waterford. These projects build on the one stop shop concept with the aim of providing improved access to information for families. An enhanced programme of support is available to a small group of customers with complex needs. Very young lone mothers are a particular target for this aspect of the service.
The operation of the pilot schemes has been evaluated and the recommendations are being examined at management level within my Department. The Government has provided £12 million over the period 2000-06 in the national development plan for the progressive expansion of the successful elements of the pilot programme.
Under the existing rules of the back to work allowance scheme, lone parents are not eligible to avail of the scheme until they are 21 years of age. The existing income disregards which apply to the one parent family payment should be an adequate incentive for this group to take up employment. In the circumstances, I have no plans to introduce a lower qualifying age for teenage parents or to introduce additional allowances. However, I will keep this under review.
Additional informationThe review of the one parent family payment highlighted the poor standard of education of this group, with early school leaving a particular problem. To encourage and assist them to return to the school system, I introduced changes in the budget for 2001 to the back to education scheme. From this autumn a lower qualifying age limit of 18 years, currently 21, will apply to recipients of the one parent family allowance who have been on the payment for at least six months and who have been out of the educational system for two years.
Overall my Department is piloting a number of initiatives to ensure it works much more closely with this group of welfare recipients. Obviously it will take some time to test these approaches and to mainstream the successful elements throughout the office network. However, I am satisfied that we must work more closely with this group and with other service agencies to ensure their life chances and those of their children are improved.
This year, approximately 3,000 teenagers will give birth in Ireland. Will the Minister consider introducing a scheme in each county to support such parents? The evidence is that the majority of them will opt out of school and education generally and will not be able to stay in employment because not enough supports exist to enable them to do this.
Will the Minister extend the pilot projects introduced by the Department so that more young teenage parents can benefit from individual counselling and support, as has been done in Australia and the UK? There are good models and supports for young parents in those countries. Will the Minister take action on allowances to ensure young parents can continue with training and education? The majority leave when they become pregnant or when they give birth. The services the Department offers are provided in a general manner. There is a need to target young teenage parents so they receive assistance at an early stage rather than becoming dependent on allowances for years on end.
We announced in the budget that we would introduce changes to the one parent family payment and the Deputy will have noticed additional changes in the Social Welfare Bill, the Committee Stage of which we will discuss tomorrow.
From this autumn a lower qualifying age of 18, currently 21, will apply to recipients of the one parent family allowance who have received it for six months and who have been out of the education system for two years. Changes are being made and I compliment the Deputy and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Family, Community and Social Affairs on bringing forward a report in this respect recently. The review of the one parent family payment which we issued some time ago gave a number of pointers for changes to the allowance.
That said, I fully accept what the Deputy said about assisting pregnant teenagers. I am aware of an excellent scheme that deals with teenage pregnancies run by a number of mothers in Waterford. Between my Department and the Department of Education and Science, that scheme was picked up. The latter Department now assists that group because it is a model for other groups and because it is something for which the Minister for Education and Science would have responsibility.
The pilot projects in my area of responsibility are designed not just for teenage lone mothers but for lone mothers generally. They are there to assist them not only through income support, as is normal for my Department, but also by examining other issues across a number of agencies and Departments through which we can assist lone parents. The experiences of the three centres in Cork, Waterford and Dublin have been extremely beneficial. The Government has agreed to allocate £12 million over the lifetime of the national development plan to roll that out on a wider basis.
That concludes Priority Questions.
