Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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3. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of lone parents currently working part-time who are on rent allowance; the provision that has been made for them to ensure they benefit from increasing their hours of work in view of the loss of the one parent family payment and the fact that 75% of any additional income over €75 of earnings will be deducted from their rent allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24847/15]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Yesterday, the Taoiseach gave a master class in spin, dishonesty and plain old prejudice against lone parents in his response to questions on the impact of the cuts that the Minister has visited on lone parents since 2012 and that are planned with the discontinuation of the one-parent family payment this July. Despite what the Taoiseach said yesterday, is it not true that the Minister has reduced the incentives and benefits for lone parents who are working? Contrary to what the Taoiseach said, they have less incentive to work as a result of what the Minister has done to them.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The facts speak for themselves. A person with one child who works 19 hours per week at the minimum wage will receive approximately €165 in wages and another €230 per week from my Department between family income supplement and the back to work family dividend. This will bring the person’s income up to €400 compared to a lone parent with one child who will receive approximately €219 per week, comprising €188.95 in personal rate and €29.80 in the weekly qualified child increase. There is a very big difference between the two figures and the gain for the person going to work is very significant and would not be subject to taxation.

The Deputy's question was on rent supplement so I apologise if that is the question I will answer.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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No, it was on the number of lone parents working part-time.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It is the question I received.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister did not read it correctly.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Approximately 5,000 lone parents are in receipt of rent supplement. Where these individuals are in employment and they are transitioning from the one-parent family payment to another social welfare payment, most will opt for the seven-year transition about which I spoke to Deputy O'Dea, in order to take into account the difficulties and responsibilities that lone parents have. The seven-year transition would bring a child from the age of seven up to the age of 14. A lone parent who is working 19 hours per week at the national minimum wage and in receipt of the one-parent family payment, the family income supplement, FIS, and rent supplement, will see very little difference in his or her weekly income. The FIS will be automatically increased and the rent supplement contribution will, due to the loss of the one-parent family payment, decrease by €56 per week. Despite this decrease, the person would be better off. The Deputy can see the figures in the reply.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

This means that their weekly income following the July reforms rises from €309 to €310. Lone parents who experience a financial loss as a result of the age reforms will be able to have their rent supplement reviewed which may result in a reduction in their rent supplement contribution. This will reduce or even eliminate their financial losses in some cases. The rent supplement assessment provides for a gradual withdrawal of payment as earnings increase. This means that a lone parent affected by the July reforms who is in receipt of the rent supplement and who increases their hours of employment, may see their rent supplement contribution increase as a result of their higher earnings from employment. However, despite this increase, these individuals will still maintain an incentive to increase their hours of employment.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will show the Minister the figures. The comparisons she makes are entirely dishonest. The real comparison is where were lone parents who were working 20 hours per week on minimum wage in 2012 before the Minister started her cuts and where will they be after July and, worse, after July 2017. In 2012, before the Minister cut the income disregard, a lone parent with one child working 20 hours per week received €481, including FIS. Prior to the July cuts the Minister is planning, it had decreased to €453. After July, it will decrease to €402.60 and after July 2017, it will decrease to €372. It is a cumulative loss for a working person of €109. This does not take into account the loss of the rent allowance the person will suffer or the fact that FIS is calculated against rent allowance, another sneaky cut the Minister has brought in.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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We have increased the spending on FIS, which goes to all families. We must be careful not to discriminate against families in a relationship, either a marriage or a partnership. We want all children and families treated in the same way with the same possibility for prosperity and financial independence. As I said to Deputy O'Dea, in the era to which Deputy Boyd Barrett refers, lone parents were four and a half times more at risk of being in poverty. Since the changes and the encouragement of lone parents into work, on a seven-year transitional basis, which people such as the Deputy conveniently ignore, the risk of those lone parents being in consistent poverty has almost halved to two and a half times. This is reality and the Deputy forgets that the first action I took, in the first Social Welfare Bill I brought before the House, was to restore the minimum wage, which Fianna Fáil and the Green Party had reduced by €1 per hour, to €8.65 per hour. I do not understand the Deputy's calculations. He should be fair.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I challenge the Minister directly on those figures and I hope somebody out there watching has the energy to go and check hers against ours. Our figures are spot on. They are an accurate reflection of what has been lost. They are borne out by the CSO figures which show, contrary to what the Minister just said, that the number of one-parent families suffering deprivation has risen from 49% to 63% since she started her cuts.

10 o’clock

The number living in consistent poverty has risen from 17.4% to 23%, while the number of children living in poverty has increased by 137,000 since the Minister started her cuts, the overwhelming majority of whom are children of lone parents. The Minister is talking absolute nonsense. The cuts have reduced the benefit that lone parents received from working. In 2012, 60% of lone parents were working but now only 36% of them are doing so. The change has had the opposite effect of that claimed by the Minister.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I believe I am quoting from the same set of statistics to which the Deputy is referring-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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My figures are from the CSO and Barnardos.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The figures show that for lone parents who are in work, the consistent poverty rates are much lower than for lone parents not in work, at 10%. The impact of social transfers in Ireland is significant. Furthermore, in the last budget I increased child benefit, introduced the back to work family dividend and reintroduced the family Christmas bonus, which was very strongly welcomed by lone parents. The figures show that for a lone parent who is in work, the risk of poverty is much lower than for a lone parent who is out of work.

In most countries, the transition from being solely defined as a lone parent happens when the child reaches the age of five or earlier, whereas in Ireland the transition begins at seven years of age and there is a seven year transition period while, as a country, we address the child care issues that we must address.