Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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43. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide figures or estimates on the number of lone parents who will be forced to give up part-time jobs when they transition to the jobseeker's allowance; the estimated additional cost to the State when their claims are re-assessed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24839/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Approximately 30,000 lone parents are scheduled to transition from the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme on 2 July, 2015. These individuals were invited to attend information sessions in their local Intreo offices where they were advised of the different options available to them when they transition from the OFP scheme. At these information sessions staff of the Department informed lone parents that the most financially advantageous option available to them was to work a minimum of 19 hours per week and claim family income supplement (FIS).

On foot of these information sessions, estimates suggests that to date over 1,250 of these lone parents have become first time FIS recipients. This means these individuals have either taken up employment or have increased their existing hours of employment to claim FIS.

The 1,250 lone parents who are new FIS recipients are now financially better off than when they were claiming the one-parent family payment. These customers will also qualify for the new back to work family dividend (BTWFD) from 2 July. The Dividend is worth €1,550 per child in the first year and reducing to 50% entitlement worth €775 per child in the second year.

In both 2013 and 2014 an increase in new FIS recipients from the lone parents who transitioned off the OFP scheme also occurred. This indicates that many transitioning lone parents have increased their hours of employment in order to become new FIS customers.

Based on the experience to date there is no evidence of a trend in lone parents leaving employment on foot of the transition from the OFP scheme.