Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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24. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is satisfied that the one-parent family payment scheme is adequate to meet the needs of recipients, particularly given recent figures from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul indicating that 59% of one-parent families experience material deprivation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18685/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department estimates spending €500 million on the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme in 2016. The scheme supports over 41,000 recipients and almost 74,300 children.

The figure quoted by St. Vincent de Paul is based on SILC data for 2014 indicating a basic deprivation rate for lone parents of 58.7%. This was a decrease of 4.5% on 2013. Research shows that being at work reduces the at-risk-of-poverty rate for lone parents by three-quarters, highlighting that the best way to tackle poverty among lone parents is to assist them into employment. The One Parent Family Payment (OFP) scheme is designed to support this.

The OFP means test is more generous than that of the jobseeker’s allowance, with an income disregard of €90 per week and the balance assessed at 50%. In addition OFP can be paid concurrently with the family income supplement (FIS). These supports encourage lone parents to take up employment thereby helping to tackle poverty rates among these customers.

In Budget 2016 OFP recipients gained a 75% Christmas bonus, a €5 increase in Child Benefit and an increase of €2.50 per week in fuel allowance. Those in receipt of FIS also benefitted from the increases to the FIS thresholds. Lone parents on JST also gained as a result of the closer alignment of the JST means test with the more generous OFP means test.

The social impact assessment of Budget 2016 showed an increase in average household incomes for working lone parents of 2%. Non-earning lone parents also fared above average, gaining 1.8%.