Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Almost 70,000 lone parents are supported by the one-parent family payment at an estimated cost of approximately €607 million in 2015. Despite considerable levels of investment, however, lone parents are still significantly more at risk of consistent poverty compared with the population as a whole. The Survey on Income and Living Conditions in 2012 found that children in low work intensity households accounted for 82% of all children in consistent poverty. Figures from EUROSTAT for 2012 found that increasing work intensity in a such a household to even part-time work - 20% to 45% work intensity - would reduce the rate of children at risk of poverty by 65%. For this reason, it is critical that the focus be changed to ensure that lone parents are provided by the State with real prospects for a better future that is not welfare dependent.

Lone parents are now being provided, when their youngest children turn seven years old, with intensive support from my Department. They will be supported to produce personal development plans through one-to-one meetings with departmental case officers. They will have subsequent access to education, training and employment supports, including JobsPlus and the new back-to-work family dividend, under which €30 will be retained per week in addition to social welfare payments in respect of each child during the parent's first year back at work and 50% of that in the second year.

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