Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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696. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has received a report (details supplied) on the impact of austerity measures on lone parent families; her views on the report; if she will publish the report in advance of budget 2018; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42273/17]

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 report 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.

On foot of this legislative commitment, a formal tendering process was initiated by my Department and, on the conclusion of that process, Indecon International Economic Consultants (Indecon) were selected to undertake the work involved. They commenced work on the report in April of this year.

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.

The timeframe for the review was very ambitious given the scale and complexity of the issues to be covered in the review. However, I have the report and it has been considered by my Department and I expect to lay it before the Houses and to publish it in the coming days.