Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy said, approximately 25,500 lone parents transitioned from the one-parent family payment scheme on 2 July 2015. Approximately 13,600 of lone parents moved to the jobseeker’s transitional payment. In fact, as the Deputy knows, they would have had no change in their income from the lone parent's allowance. However, once a parent's youngest child is seven years old, he or she can become involved in education and training opportunities. That is going extremely well in the Department and has been very well received. Some 2,500 lone parents moved to the jobseeker’s allowance scheme because, presumably, their youngest child was over 14 years of age. Some 8,100 lone parents moved to the family income supplement scheme.

A significant number of lone parents would be full-time homemakers and that has always been the case. We are following the example of Scandinavian countries that the Deputy has often said he admires. In those countries, children are settled in school much younger, at one, two or three years of age. In Britain and the North of Ireland, that occurs at five years of age. At that stage, one gives people an opportunity to get involved again in education, training and work. That has the best outcomes for lone parents and their children.

There are currently 8,800 customers in receipt of the back-to-work family dividend, of which over 6,500 are former one-parent family payment recipients. The back-to-work family dividend allows parents to retain the child portion of their former core social welfare weekly payment, which equals €29.80 per week per child, for two years, with full entitlement in the first year and 50% entitlement in the second year. This equates to €1,550 per child in the first year and €775 per child in the second year.

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