Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 8, after line 32, to insert the following: “Report on extending Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment

16.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, lay a report before both Houses of the Oireachtas on options to extend access to the Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment until a youngest child reaches 18 years of age.”.

This amendment seeks a report on the extension of the jobseeker's transitional payment until a youngest child reaches 18 years. We have just discussed one-parent families and the particular vulnerabilities they have. A hugely disproportionate number of the families who move into homelessness are one-parent families. Currently, parents get the one-parent family payment until a child is seven and when the child turns seven the parents move to the jobseeker's transitional payment from age seven to 14. The jobseeker's transitional payment requires engagement with the system. It gives the opportunity of looking to employment and education but it does not have a requirement for full-time availability because it recognises that people may be balancing care responsibilities. There is a period of engagement on a voluntary basis. It is an opportunity to build connections.

The problem is that once the child hits 14, the parent of that child becomes invisible to the system in terms of their care. They are just treated as a jobseeker and are presumed to have full-time availability even though those years between 14 and 18 can sometimes be the most vulnerable. It can be the period of time in which young people require the most care. It may be that someone is available part of the time but needs to be there in the evenings for the child. This would make a small difference in terms of the payments because the jobseeker's transitional payment would continue but, crucially, it would allow one-parent families to remain visible in the system until the child turned 18. They could also have access to the additional measures the Minister mentioned, such as the working family payment.

This is a good measure. It would just increase the age threshold, not for the one-parent family payment but for the jobseeker's transitional payment, from 14 to 18. It would allow for more effective and authentic engagement between the Intreo offices, social protection systems and so forth and the lone parents who are using them. It would mean parents could have that flexibility of working part-time without being in a position where they are jeopardising receipt of their payment. I hope the Minister can consider this. It is a practical measure that would simply increase the threshold to 18. It would go a ways towards addressing that extreme vulnerability of many one-parent families in this State.