The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill, 2012, introduces changes to the structure of the one parent family payment (OFP) and the age of the youngest child at which the payment ceases. From 3 May 2012, new customers will receive the one parent family payment until their youngest child reaches the age of 12, from January 2013, age 10 and from January 2014, age 7. For existing customers there will be a tapered phasing out period to 2015 to enable them to access education and training and prepare them for their return to the labour market.
The average weekly recipients, both new and existing, affected by these changes over the period 2012 to 2015 are 170 (2012), 765 (2013), 2,210 (2014) and 4,510 (2015). When the youngest child of a lone parent reaches the age of 7, if the parent is still in need of income support, they can apply for the jobseeker's allowance (JA) which is paid at the same basic rate as OFP, and which has the same increases for each additional qualified child, and receive the activation supports attached to that payment.
They will then be profiled and their individual needs will be assessed. This will facilitate the agreement of a progression plan with those customers, the development of their case management to assist them to either improve on existing skills or learn new ones, and their gradual move towards or entry into the labour force. It is not known how many customers will take up employment as a result of the activation measures introduced in 2012. Other than the impact figures provided above, no additional analysis of the specific age changes to OFP is currently available.
