Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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653. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has considered the independent review of the changes to the one-parent family payment which was agreed to during the passage of the Social Welfare Act 2016; her plans regarding same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42531/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Act 2016, enacted on 19 December 2016, included a commitment that a review of the changes to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) scheme since January 2012 would be laid before the Houses of Oireachtas within 9 months of the enactment of the Act.

The review was to assess the financial and social effects of the OFP changes taking into account the effects on welfare dependency and the poverty rates of those affected. The scope of the review included the long-term age-related policy changes to the scheme that were implemented since January 2012, in addition to the shorter term changes required to achieve savings across all social welfare expenditure over the same period on foot of the economic downturn.

In order to complete the review, Indecon carried out a detailed quantitative and econometric analysis of a number of relevant datasets to assess the impact of the changes on lone parents. The review also included one of the largest surveys targeting one-parent families in Ireland, with 33,000 lone parents surveyed.Responses were received and analysed from almost 3,700 lone parents who were directly affected by the changes. This provided an excellent opportunity to gather the views and experiences of lone parents affected by the changes.

I have received the review and I laid it before the Houses of the Oireachtas on Monday 9thOctober 2017, as provided for in the Social Welfare Act, 2016. I welcome a number of positive findings in the Review:

-The policy changes introduced have been successful in increasing employment and in reducing welfare dependency – the reforms increased the probability of both employment and of higher employment income.

-Responses to the survey showed that the percentage of lone parents in full-time employment increased from 15% to 22%.

-Welfare dependency rates fell in the year after One-parent Family Payment was lost, and continued to fall in subsequent years.

I believe that these findings indicate that the broad policy intentions of the changes are having positive results and making real changes to the lives of lone parents, where they have been able to transition into employment.

I acknowledge, however, that the review has also raised a number of matters of concern:

-Many of those who lost the One-parent Family Payment remain unemployed, or are in low paid or part-time employment,

-The balance of evidence indicates that there is an increased probability of being at risk of poverty as a result of the changes,

-Further supports, aimed at assisting lone parents to obtain full-time employment or increased hours of work, need to be put in place.

The impacts on lone parents arose from the combination of the policy changes to the scheme, and from the imposition, simultaneously, of the financial cuts imposed to welfare schemes across the board, arising out of the economic downturn. I, and my predecessors, have already taken action in recent Budgets to improve the position of lone parents, for example by progressively increasing the income disregard for those on Jobseekers Transition (JST) from a low of €60 a week to €110 euro a week, and by targeting improved, tailored activation measures towards this group, to assist them into training and employment.

For example lone parents who wish to participate in education can continue to receive support from the Department either through the retention of their primary payment or Family Income Supplement or they can transfer to the Back to Education Allowance. Furthermore, to support lone parents participate in education, SUSI grants (both maintenance and fee grants) are payable concurrently with One-parent Family Payment and Jobseekers Transition. Therefore a lone parent can participate in education and receive the dual support of the One-parent Family Payment/ Jobseekers Transition and the SUSI maintenance grants.

Where the lone parent is on Jobseekers Allowance they can, should they wish to, participate in education, transfer to the Back to Education programme. The additional childcare supports coming on-stream are also of particular benefit to lone parents.

I consider that these measures are a step in the right direction, and I am working to ensure that there is no loss in the momentum to enhance the support for lone parents. The Review points to the need to intensify both the engagement with lone parents as they move off One-parent Family Payment, and the activation supports available, and I am requesting my officials to prioritise this.

The Department’s employment services provide a case-managed approach to assist lone parents to avail of various opportunities within an ever-improving labour market. This case-managed approach will be developed further, specifically to offer more tailored and holistic progression plans for lone parents, that better reflect their individual circumstances.

The move to more tailored progressions plans for lone parents will incorporate supports to access the childcare, education and training and other appropriate supports that they require to, in turn, access the labour market. These changes should help to improve the living standards of, and reduce the risk of poverty faced by, lone parents.

I intend to continue to prioritise supports for lone parents, particularly those which incentivise work over welfare. I intend also to provide for the further review of the scheme. As there is a time lag before the benefits of labour market reforms appear I anticipate that this review will include data to the end of 2018.