Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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11. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the rationale behind the upcoming changes to the one-parent family payment which will see single parents, often looking after a disabled child or parent, losing up to €86 per week; the additional income supports that will be available to these parents who are unable to work because they are full-time carers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4969/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are currently 69,884 lone parents being supported by the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme at an estimated cost to my Department of approximately €607 million in 2015. When introducing the OFP scheme age change reforms in 2012, a special provision was included for recipients who are claiming the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) payment for a disabled child aged under 16 years. This special provision ensures that lone parents who care for a disabled child will continue to receive support until that child reaches the age of 16 years and can apply for the disability allowance (DA) in their own right. As a result of this provision 1,650 lone parents will not be affected by the next phase of the OFP age reforms, which is due to take effect in July.

It is expected that on foot of the final phase of OFP age reforms, another cohort of OFP recipients who are in receipt of the half-rate carer’s allowance, as they are caring for another person (i.e. an adult or a child aged 16 years or over), may be affected by the July changes.

I am therefore working with my officials in examining the position of these lone parents and the potential impact of the July change. I hope to conclude our deliberations on this aspect of the change in the coming weeks.

In this regard, Deputies will recall that before Christmas, I reviewed the reduction to the income disregard for lone parents due to be introduced last January and in January 2016. In order to maintain the existing incentive for employment, I brought forward provisions to maintain the level of disregard at 2014 levels.