Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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63. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she has received communications from lone parents whose support has been reduced in the past 12 months and now find themselves in a vulnerable position; if her attention has been drawn to the extent of such hardship; if she will provide interim assistance where the level of the reduction of one-parent family allowance has caused severe hardship; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5284/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Despite significant investment in the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) scheme, lone parents continue to experience higher levels of ‘consistent poverty’ than the population generally. It is generally agreed that the best route out of poverty is through employment.

The purpose of the reforms to the OFP scheme is to reduce long-term social welfare dependency and associated poverty among lone parents by ending the expectation that they will remain outside of the workforce indefinitely. The reforms aim to provide the necessary supports to lone parents to help them to access the Department’s range of education, training, and employment programmes, and to secure employment.

In order to take account of the specific caring responsibilities of lone parents with young children, the Department has introduced the jobseeker’s allowance (JA) transitional arrangement in 2013. This exempts former OFP recipients whose youngest child is aged under 14 years from having to satisfy the jobseeker conditions of being available for, and genuinely seeking, full-time employment. The JA transitional arrangement allows lone parents with children aged under 14 years to balance their caring responsibilities and, also, significantly reduces their requirement for child care. It allows these customers to work part-time, e.g. mornings only, while receiving an income support payment.

Budget 2015 brought in an increase of €5 in the Child Benefit rate, from €130 to €135 per child per week, which will benefit over 611,000 households with children, including lone parent households. In addition, Budget 2015 saw the partial restoration of the Christmas Bonus to 1.1 million income support recipients, including to all recipients of the OFP payment and the JA transitional payment.

Budget 2015 also introduced the Back to Work Family Dividend (BTWFD). The introduction of the BTWFD provides a further incentive for jobseekers and OFP recipients to avail of employment opportunities by allowing them to retain their increase for a qualified child when they leave welfare for employment or self-employment. It is estimated that approximately 9,600 lone parents who transition off their OFP payment will transfer to the Family Income Supplement and as such will qualify for the BTWFD.

My officials and I are currently examining the position of lone parents who are in receipt of a half-rate carer’s allowance in conjunction with their one parent family payment and the potential impact of that the July changes may have on this cohort. I hope to conclude our deliberations on this aspect of the change in the coming weeks.

As a result of the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act, 2014, the OFP scheme income disregard is being maintained at its current level of €90 per week. This measure will benefit approximately 28,000 working OFP recipients in 2015 and retains the existing financial incentive to take up employment.