Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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294. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of social welfare sanctions applied to those persons receiving payment as lone parents, in tabular form. [2795/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Penalty rates only apply to clients who are selected for the Activation process and fail to engage. One Parent Family Payment clients are not selected for Activation and therefore, no sanctions can be imposed on their payments.

The Jobseeker’s Transitional payment is a special arrangement under the scheme which aims to support lone parents into the workforce while they have young children. The payment is known as JST.

Jobseeker Transition clients are selected for Activation and therefore, sanctions for not engaging in the Activation process can apply.

- 240 penalty rates were applied to JST claims during 2016.

- Since June 2011, there have been 452 penalty rates applied to JST category claims.