Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In recent weeks I have met representatives from the non-governmental organisations in the housing sector and lone-parent representative groups. As I said to colleagues earlier, I am looking at all the social welfare payments in the context of the budget. Last year for lone parents and all parents I was happy to be able to increase child benefit and bring in the back to work family dividend for lone parents. I am aware of the concerns which have been raised around the reforms of the one-parent family payment.

While I welcome the debate that has been generated by the reforms, my priority is to ensure that we as a society arrive at a situation in which lone parents have the same opportunities to access employment, training and education as all others. For too long, significant numbers of lone parents have been confined to social welfare dependency, and despite the provision of extensive funding to lone parent payments, the one-parent family payment scheme has not succeeded in preventing lone parents from being more at risk of poverty than the population as a whole. I am concerned that the outcome for their children is not as good as it should be. Therefore, the Department will now work with lone parents on a one-to-one basis to provide them with enhanced access to the Department's supports and services.

In regard to people at risk of homelessness, two weeks ago the organisations informed me of their concerns about the number of families becoming homeless, particularly families that are not aware of the supports that are available. I wish to stress again that if the Deputy is aware of anybody who is at risk of becoming homeless, she should advise him or her to call to the Department's community welfare service, because we have a protocol in place which allows us to review the rent allowance. We have done that already in a significant number of cases in Dublin city and around the country.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

While responsibility for provision of accommodation for homeless persons rests with local authorities, the Department has put in place a number of preventative measures to ensure that people at risk of homelessness are supported under the rent supplement scheme where increased rental payments are required. The Department is actively communicating information on these supports, including by text message to all rent supplement beneficiaries. These measures allow for flexibility in assessing customers’ individual accommodation needs on a case-by-case basis. The community welfare service of the Department has a statutory discretionary power to increase a supplement for rental purposes, including when dealing with applicants who are in danger of homelessness. These measures are kept under review to ensure that the appropriate supports are provided.

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