Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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27. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will restore the income disregard for lone parents at work from €75 per week in 2015 to €146.50 per week, the level pertaining before budget 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4987/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Budget 2012 introduced a number of reforms to the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme. These included the planned phased reduction of the OFP scheme earnings disregard from €146.50 per week to €60 per week between January, 2012, and January, 2016, respectively. The OFP scheme income disregard was last reduced from €110 per week to €90 per week on 1 January, 2014. As part of the measures introduced in the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act, 2014, I got the agreement of Government that the planned reduction to €75 would not go ahead and the disregard has been maintained at €90 per week.

The further reductions to the income disregard that were scheduled to occur in January 2015, and in January, 2016, will now not take place. This will benefit approximately 28,000 working OFP recipients in 2015.

The cost of the retention of the OFP disregard at €90 per week is €8 million in 2015 and €10 million in later years. There are currently no plans to further alter these provisions

However, the introduction of the Back to Work Family Dividend as announced in Budget 2015 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. The combination of the introduction of the Back to Work Family Dividend and the retention of the OFP earnings disregard at €90 per week are both positive and welcome as they improve the financial incentive for lone parents to avail of employment opportunities.