Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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95. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if the cuts that had been scheduled to be made to the one parent family payment scheme next year, including the lowering of the cut-off age to seven years and the reduction to the income disregard, will now proceed in view of her statement in the context of the latest budget that there would be no reductions to social welfare payments in 2015. [41714/14]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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On budget day the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection said there would be no reductions jin social welfare payments in 2015. In the light of that assertion, will she confirm whether she will now proceed with the planned reductions to the one parent family payment scheme next year, namely, her plan to lower the cut-off age to seven years and further reduce the income disregard from €90 to just €75 from 1 January 2015?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The one parent family payment, OFP, scheme supports 71,095 recipients at an estimated cost of €865 million in 2014. The reforms to the scheme to reduce the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the payment to seven years of age from July 2015 and to reduce the scheme’s income disregard to €60 per week by January 2016 are provided for in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2012. Budget 2015 maintains the OFP personal rate of €188 per week, with €29.80 per week payable for each qualified child. In addition, the rate of child benefit per child will increase from €130 to €135 per month in January - a measure that will benefit over 611,000 households with children, including OFP recipients.

I am pleased to say I am partially restoring the Christmas bonus this year. A bonus of 25% will be paid in early December to over 1.1 million recipients, including all recipients of the one parent family payment and the jobseeker’s allowance transitional payment. Budget 2015 also introduced a new back-to-work family dividend.

One-parent family recipients who go back to work become eligible to receive the dividend. I explained that this means they will keep the payments with regard to children on a tapering basis for two years. In addition, the amounts we pay in family income supplement has increased significantly, particularly for one-parent families.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The survey on income and living conditions, SILC, is often quoted in this House and was released in April 2014. It confirmed that one-parent families are those most at risk of poverty, with the highest consistent poverty rate, at 17.4%, a rate of deprivation of 49.5%, and nearly 30% of families are at risk of poverty. However, the Minister cannot give a simple answer about whether she is going ahead with a cut in the social welfare rate for one-parent families from €90 to €75 for the income disregard. This was indicated last year for January of next year. It is a simple question. Is the Minister going ahead with this? If so, does she understand that it contradicts what she said on budget day that there would be no reductions in social welfare rates in 2015?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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With regard to one-parent families, the critical thing is to provide a supportive framework for parents to get back to work in the way that happens in the North when the youngest child is well settled in school. That is why the age of seven years was selected. It is what applies in the North and in the UK. In Scandinavian countries, the age is lower. If the Deputy does not have a problem with it in the North, I wonder why he has a problem with parents in one-parent families being enabled and encouraged to return to work. The most significant way for younger lone parents to get back to work is to take up educational opportunities. The Department of Social Protection provides a varied and extensive range of back to education courses on offer in PLCs, colleges and universities throughout the country. The best way of reducing poverty levels is to ensure the lone parent has an opportunity to take up work. That is the best way of significantly increasing someone's income and providing for their financial security.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Perhaps the Minister does not remember it because her memory seems to be fading. The Government has already cut the income disregard from €146.50 to €90 and now to €75. When the Minister introduced changes to the one-parent family provision, she said she would not proceed without "a credible and bankable commitment" from the Government putting in place a system of "safe, affordable and accessible child care". That does not exist. Is the Minister proceeding with the cut in the income disregard for one-parent families on 1 January and is this equivalent to a cut in social welfare rates, which she said would not happen in 2015?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In the budget, there have been modest but significant tax reductions, USC reductions and increases in social welfare payments as well as significant increases in areas like health and education. The effect is that everyone, including one-parent families, will share in the dividend.

I have outlined what one-parent families will share. It is really important that as a society we make provision for lone parents - those parenting on their own - where they have either not been involved with the labour market at all or been out of work for a period. As with everybody else who has become unemployed or is not working, and where children are settled in school, we must provide really good mechanisms to allow parents return to work. Normally, the mechanism for this is access to enhanced education opportunities, as the Deputy may know. That is what I have been seeking in the Department, as we provide for very significant numbers of lone parents and others in taking up educational opportunities while retaining the lone-parent payment. It is the best way of helping people to financial independence.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is not what the Minister promised.