Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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112. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she remains satisfied that one parent families receive a combination of payments amounting to at least as much as they previously qualified for under the One Parent Family Allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17845/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Almost 70,000 lone parents are currently supported by the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme at an estimated cost to the Department of approximately €607 million in 2015. However, despite considerable investment, the scheme has not succeeded in preventing lone parents from being significantly more at risk of consistent poverty than the population as a whole.

The purpose of the phased OFP scheme age change reforms that were introduced in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2012, is to reduce long-term social welfare dependency and poverty among lone parents, and to ensure that they have improved access to the Department's range of education, training, and employment support programmes, in order to assist them in securing employment and financial independence.

The final phase of the OFP scheme age change reforms will take place on 2 July, 2015, when the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which an OFP recipient's payment ceases will be reduced to 7 years for all recipients.

Approximately 29,400 OFP recipients will transition from the scheme on that day. These customers will be supported by the Department to transition to an alternative income support payment – as appropriate.

Approximately 20,000 affected lone parents will experience no income changes or will gain after the transition. The gain for individuals in this instance will be in the range of €10 to €150 per week, depending on their level of earnings and, also, on the number of children that they have.

The remaining lone parents are in employment. Approximately 6,000 of these will have an immediate incentive to increase the number of hours that they work to 19 in order to claim the family income supplement (FIS) payment and the new back to work family (BTWFD) dividend. These individuals will then be financially better off than their current position.