Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2017
270. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection his views on the recently published survey on income and living conditions by the Central Statistics Office, which showed a consistent poverty rate of above 26.2% for lone parents; and the steps his Department will take to tackle child poverty in lone-parent families. [6780/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe latest CSO Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2015 shows that the consistent poverty rate for lone parent households is 26.2%, up from 25% in 2014. The deprivation rate for lone parent households fell from 58.7 per cent in 2014 to 57.9% in 2015. The at-risk-of-poverty rate for lone parent households is largely unchanged in 2015 at 36.2%, compared to 36.5% in 2014. The data also shows that the consistent poverty rate for children fell from 12.7% in 2014 to 11.5% in 2015.
The full impact of the recovery is not reflected in these 2015 figures. Macro-economic and labour market indicators have shown continued economic and employment growth since then. Unemployment has fallen from 9.5% in mid-2015 to 7.1% in January 2017. The number of people in receipt of working-age income and employment supports continues to fall. The full impact of the reforms to the one-parent family payment (OFP) and the positive impact of recent Budgets on lone parents are also not reflected in these figures.
In Budget 2016 lone parents benefitted from a number of measures including increases in child benefit, changes to the means test on the jobseeker’s transitional payment to align it with the more generous means test on the one-parent family payment, and increases in the family income supplement thresholds. In Budget 2017 all lone parents on OFP, the jobseeker’s transitional payment (JST) and jobseeker’s allowance (JA) will benefit from the €5 increase in the weekly rates of payment from March. A new €500 annual Cost of Education Allowance will be made available to Back to Education Allowance participants with children from the next academic year in September. In addition, the income disregards for OFP and JST have risen by €20 from January this year, from €90 to €110 per week, reversing in part previous reductions, to encourage one parent families to stay in, and return to, work. During that time the national minimum wage was increased from €8.65 to €9.25 per hour.
The Department of Social Protection’s social impact assessment of Budget 2017 showed that average household incomes increase by 1%. Non-earning lone parents were the biggest beneficiary of Budget 2017 with gains of 4.5%. Working lone parents also experienced above average gains at almost 1.2%. This represents a cumulative increase across Budgets 2015, 2016 and 2017 almost €27 per week for working lone parents and of over €24 per week for lone parents who are not working.
One of the most important measures contained in Budget 2017 for tackling child poverty was the announcement that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will implement next year the new Single Affordable Childcare Scheme. This scheme is a step change in State support for childcare in Ireland. It is an important scheme as it will significantly reduce the cost of childcare for low income parents and will provide further substantial support for families to lift themselves out of poverty by taking up employment.
Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: the national policy framework for children and young people, published by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in 2014, includes a target to reduce child poverty by two-thirds by 2020. Meeting this target means lifting 102,000 children out of poverty. Under this Framework, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in collaboration with the Department of Social Protection and other relevant Departments is taking a whole-of-government approach to tackling child poverty.
Eurostat data shows that social transfers (excluding pensions) reduced the at-risk-of-poverty rate from 34.9% to 16.9%, an absolute reduction of 18 percentage points. In relative terms, this represents a poverty reduction effect of 52%. Ireland continues to be consistently among the best performing EU countries in reducing poverty through social transfers. But we also know that, reducing poverty for lone parents is not just about income support. It is also about supporting lone parents to make the transition into employment and assisting these families through the provision of quality services in areas such as activation including education, training and employment supports, and childcare.
As part of the OFP reforms the Department has begun engaging with lone parents whose youngest child is seven years and older, on a proactive and supported basis. To date over 9,000 lone parents, of the 14,500 lone parents who are on the jobseeker’s transitional payment, have been selected for engagement. It will take time to see the full impact of these activation engagements as it will take time for lone parents to complete the education, training or employment support programmes.
Initial indicative data from the latest Quarterly National Household Survey also shows that there has been a significant increase in the percentage of lone parents in employment in the year since the end of June 2016. This increase relates to all lone parents in the State and reflects the increase in economic and employment growth generally. The magnitude of the increase for lone parents specifically, however, is clearly significant.
Continued economic recovery, together with the actions outlined above will support further reductions in poverty over the coming years. The independent review of the one-parent family payment reforms, once completed, will also assist with discussions in my Department on measures for lone parents in Budget 2018.
