Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The one-parent family payment scheme reforms aim to maximise the opportunities for lone parents to enter into, or increase their level of, employment. The Department has contacted those lone parents who have transitioned from one-parent family payment, who are working part-time and who may have experienced a reduction. These customers were invited to attend a one-to-one meeting with a case officer in order to discuss their options. The Department will continue to assist these customers in any way possible.

Of the approximately 25,500 lone parents who transitioned out of the one-parent family payment on 2 July 2015, approximately 5,000 of them are in receipt of the rent supplement. Where these customers are in employment and have transitioned from the one-parent family payment to another income support payment, their contribution towards their rent may have decreased. The Deputy probably knows this. The amount they have to pay may have decreased. A lone parent who was working 19 hours per week on the national minimum wage, while also in receipt of the one-parent family payment, family income supplement and rent supplement, has seen very little difference in his or her weekly income after transition to the family income supplement.

If the Deputy has a case in which a lone parent has experienced a reduction, the rent supplement can be reviewed. We are doing this on a case-by-case basis and so far this year, we have negotiated approximately 4,500 cases. I recommend the Deputy bring such cases to the attention of his local social welfare office with a view to having the rent supplement reviewed. We are continuously reviewing all the elements of the scheme.

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