Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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36. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on the latest SILC data which shows that 40.2% of lone parent households are at risk of poverty, 24.6% are in consistent poverty and 50.1% are experiencing deprivation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1964/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The best way to tackle poverty among lone parents is through employment and the recently published Indecon report echoed this view. The report found that the changes to the one-parent family payment scheme made over the last number of years increased employment and reduced welfare dependency. It also found that the changes increased the probability of employment and higher employment income for lone parents. The report also concluded that assisting lone parents to enhance skills also needs to be seen as a key objective as low paid employment will not, on its own, ensure a reduction in the risk of poverty.The full impact of the economic recovery is not reflected in these 2016 figures.

Unemployment has fallen from 7.5% in November 2016 to 6.1% in November 2017, its lowest level in 9 and a half years. The positive impact of recent Budgets on lone parents and the full impact of the increases in employment are also not reflected in these SILC figures. Continued economic recovery, together with these Budget measures, is likely to have impacted positively on poverty rates since 2016 and this improvement is expected to continue over the coming years.

In 2017, further Budget improvements were implemented, and I have continued to emphasise improvements for lone parents in particular. My Department’s social impact assessments of Budgets 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 are an indicator of this improvement. These show a cumulative increase of €36.75 in the average weekly household income of employed lone parents and €33.60 for unemployed lone parents. This compares favourably with a weekly increase of €34.45 for the average household.

Budget measures that I announced and that will take effect from 29th March 2018 (specifically the increases to the income disregard, the primary rate and the increase for a qualified child) will see a lone parent on the one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s transitional payment working 15 hours a week on the National Minimum Wage better off by almost €1000 per year.