Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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126. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the rate of severe material deprivation for lone parent households here as measured by EUROSTAT, in tabular form; the way in which this rate compares to the EU average; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40225/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Eurostat Statistics on Income and Living Conditions 2014 show that the severe material deprivation rate for lone parent households in Ireland was 25.1% in 2014, reflecting a 7.2 percentage point decrease on the 2013 rate. This compares to an EU average of 19.2% in 2014. (See the following table)

My Department estimates spending €500 million on the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme in 2016. The scheme supports over 40,000 recipients and almost 73,000 children. The OFP means test is more generous than that of the jobseeker’s allowance, with an income disregard of €90 per week in 2016 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.

The Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment is available to lone parents (both former OFP recipients and new lone parents), who have a youngest child aged 7 to 13 years inclusive. These customers are exempt from the Jobseeker’s Allowance conditions that require them to be available for, and genuinely seeking, full-time work. As such, no lone parent with a youngest child aged under 14 years is required to take-up employment in order to receive income support from the Department. They can also move into education and/or employment, including into part-time employment, and still receive payment, subject to a means test.

All Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment recipients receive a one to one meeting with a Case Officer from the Department who assists them to produce a personal development plan and guides them towards appropriate education, training and employment opportunities.

Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment recipients who are in education and who qualify for the SUSI maintenance grant will not have this grant assessed as means for their payment.

The Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment is therefore a crucial support for lone parents that allows these customers to balance their work and caring responsibilities and, significantly, reduces their requirement for child care. The payment also offers a tapered support to these customers as their children get older.

In Budget 2017 all lone parents on the one-parent family payment, the jobseeker’s transitional payment and jobseeker’s allowance will benefit from the €5 increase in the weekly rates of payment from March. A new €500 annual Cost of Education Allowance will be made available to Back to Education Allowance participants with children from the next academic year in September. In addition, the income disregards for the one-parent family payment and the jobseeker’s transitional payment will rise by €20 from January, from €90 to €110 per week, reversing in part previous reductions, to encourage one parent families to stay in, and return to, work.

The Department of Social Protection’s social impact assessment of Budget 2017 showed that average household incomes increase by 1%. Non-earning lone parents were the biggest beneficiary of Budget 2017 with gains of 4.5%. Working lone parents also experienced above average gains at almost 1.2%.

Severe Material Deprivation Rates for Single Person Households with Dependent Children