Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I refer to what Senator Dolan said. A one-parent family with two children aged 4 and 6 will benefit from an additional €2,424 per annum as a result of this budget. They get the Christmas bonus, they get the extra €12 weekly rate increase from January, and they will get the child support payment, which has been increased - for two children under 12 they will get an extra €8 a week. The child support payment lump sum is €200 in total, which is €100 per child. With the one-family payment and the child support payment they will get the October bonus of €324. They will also qualify for the fuel allowance of a €300 lump sum. The two double payments for child benefit will amount to a total of €560. That will be paid in November and December, which is a total of €560. We have looked at how we can support one-parent families in this budget.

With the jobseeker's transitional payment there is a number of income supports available for lone parents once their entitlement to the one-parent family payment ceases. This includes the jobseeker's transitional payment, which is a provision under the jobseeker's allowance scheme where the youngest child is aged 7 to 13, inclusive, and the jobseeker's allowance payment which may be paid to lone parents where the youngest child is aged 14 or over. The working family payments are also available to lone parents who are working 38 or more hours per fortnight and that scheme is payable where a person has a child up to age 18, or age 22 if in full-time education. Lone parents currently on jobseeker's transitional payment can transfer to work on family payment where he or she satisfies the hours-worked requirement and the other scheme conditions.Lone parents currently on jobseeker's transitional payment can transfer to the working family payment where they satisfy the hours worked requirement and the other scheme conditions. The working family payment and back-to-work family dividend can be paid concurrently. Extending the jobseeker's transitional payment beyond the 14th birthday of a person's youngest child would have the effect of delaying the interaction of affected claimants with the Department's Intreo service. The aim of the approach is to reduce long-term welfare dependency and associated poverty among lone parents and to improve their access to education, training and employment support services through Intreo. Improved access to these services will enhance the skills set and job readiness of these people, thereby assisting with their transition into the workforce and their subsequent attainment of financial independence.

For these reasons, there are no plans to increase the age of the children for which jobseeker's transitional payment can be paid. In fact, a report was done by the ESRI in 2022 which examined the impact of the reforms on the labour market outcomes of lone parents. It found that the reforms led to an increase in the average hours worked by lone parents of between two and five hours per week. Lone parents impacted by the policy were 13% more likely to be working. There was an increase of household income of between and 9% and 12% and an increase of between 23% and 29% in earnings from employment. The policy was associated with a 10% to 14% reduction in the poverty rate of lone parents.

On the issue of pay-related benefit, Senators will be aware that in line with the legislation that recently progressed through the Oireachtas, the new pay-related scheme will be an individualised payment specifically linked to income. Pay-related benefit means that the amount of a payment a person receives is directly linked to prior earnings. Nothing else is taken into consideration. It is a percentage of prior earnings up to a maximum of €450. A person's salary is not linked to his or her household composition. This was the approach taken for the Covid pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, where the rate was aligned with that of a couple in receipt of a jobseeker's payment. The CSO survey on living conditions in 2021 showed that the PUP scheme had a very positive impact on poverty rates at that time.

The vast majority of claims under the existing jobseeker's benefit scheme are in respect of the personal rate only, with less than 5% of current recipients in receipt of an adult dependant allowance. The current scheme structure is not appropriate for the vast majority of claimants. The majority of claimants who qualify for pay-related benefit will receive a higher payment than they would have received on jobseeker's and for people who may be better off on a payment based on household composition, the means-tested jobseeker's allowance scheme will remain an option.