John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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272. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the stage at which the report into the impact changes to the one-parent family payment are having on lone parents as committed to in the Social Welfare Bill 2016 is at; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41108/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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On foot of the legislative commitment contained in the Social Welfare Act 2016 to carry out an independent report on the amendments to the one parent family payment, and following a tendering process, Indecon Economic Consultants were selected and commenced work on the report in April of this year.

The contract requires Indecon to examine the financial, social, poverty and welfare dependency impacts of the changes to the OFP scheme that were introduced since January 2012. To achieve this Indecon must carry out a detailed quantitative and econometric analysis of the Department’s data on affected lone parents, and carry out a qualitative analysis that includes issuing a survey to 34,000 lone parents and collating those results.

The timeframe for the review was always very ambitious given the scale and complexity of the issues to be covered in the review. However, it is expected that the report will be available within the coming weeks.