Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will have to see what people do. The back to work family dividend ended in July for some people and we have not seen a significant increase in people going from FIS to jobseeker's transition. I believe it was ended in July for some people but maybe it was a reduction rather than people losing the payment altogether. The back to work family dividend becomes tapered down at different points. We know that some 3,000 people have moved from one parent family payments to FIS, which is moving in the right direction. There has been much commentary on this and I will give one small example of some of the changes that have occurred in the last two years, on foot of the measures contained in budgets 2016 and 2017. A lone parent on the jobseeker's transition payment who works 15 hours at the national minimum wage will see an increase in their overall income of €16 per week, from approximately €334 in 2016 to €350 in 2017. Since 2015 this lone parent has seen an increase of almost €44 per week, or €2,300 per annum, between take home pay and State support. Inevitably the focus is going to be on people who have lost income but it is important to bear in mind that many people are much where they were and actually a substantial number are better off.

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