Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill which introduces a number of changes to the social welfare system, some of which were introduced in budget 2015. I acknowledge the work being done in this area by the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, and her Department. This Government is very committed to a fair welfare system which supports those who need it most and helps people come out of unemployment and return to work or education. Currently, social welfare payments provide income support to 1.5 million people directly and to another 750,000 indirectly. Total welfare expenditure in 2015 will amount to €19.4 billion.

This Bill covers a number of areas and is technical in parts but the main element of the Bill concerns jobseekers and lone parents who are transitioning from the one-parent family payment in July. This is contained in section 4. For people who are full-time lone parents and are not involved in work or study outside of the home, there is no change to their payments, and that is the vast majority of people. Some 30,200 one-parent family payment scheme recipients will transition from the scheme on 2 July when the maximum age limit of the youngest child will be reduced to seven years. The majority are expected to move to the jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement. Under this arrangement, the money will stay exactly the same. Lone parents whose youngest child is aged seven to 13 years are exempt from being available for and genuinely seeking full-time employment work, thereby reducing their child care requirements and giving them flexibility as their young children are being reared.

However, it is proposed to encourage these lone parents to become involved in education and training. This will, I hope, help them to take up full-time or part-time employment when their children are older and are in secondary school.

The Minister has introduced a back to work family dividend for lone parent and long-term jobseeker families with children. The back to work family dividend will also apply to lone parent and long-term jobseeker families with children who commence or return to self-employment.

The qualified child increase, which is worth €29.80 per week, will be paid in full for the first year in employment and half that amount will be paid weekly for the second year. The back to work family dividend will be additional to any entitlement the family may have under the family income supplement, FIS, scheme and will not affect the level of the FIS payment.

What the Government is trying to do is to focus on opportunities to engage in training and education because where a person leaves employment, the opportunities to go back to either education or training and the chances of securing employment are much reduced for people in their 40s or 50s. The critical way to improve people's income and reduce their chances of living in poverty and to increase the chances of their children doing well at school and finding a job is to provide a mechanism through which they are encouraged to work.

What most lone parents want to do is go back to education and further training as soon as their family and household circumstances permit them to do that. We need to keep the doors to education and work open for many of these young mothers who until now have had the sole responsibility rearing young children single-handedly, many without any financial support from the children's father. At the end of December 2014, there were 23,366 participating in the back to education allowance scheme.

For many years, the welfare system has been a political football kicked around by past Ministers whose only solution was to pour money into benefit rather than addressing the core issues that keep people trapped in this system. Finally, this Government, through the Minister, has introduced a number of progressive measures to encourage and enable a pathway to opportunities outside the welfare system. I commend the Minister for her foresight in thinking.

I recently met a young single mother who has been given the opportunity to return to education. She told me this would not have been possible if it were not for the introduction of the back to education programme this Government introduced. She spoke of the confidence this has given her and of her enthusiasm for learning, and the future possibilities for meaningful employment. This Government's aim is to ensure people who go to work are paid well and to make work pay.

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