John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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610. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to compile, analyse and implement a cross-departmental action plan to address the evidence of the reports produced in relation to lone parent families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3275/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The recently published Indecon report found that the changes to the one-parent family payment scheme (OFP) 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 report of the Joint Committee on Social Protection described the main challenges facing lone parents including child poverty, activation and education, childcare costs, maintenance payments and the changes to the OFP scheme.

Both of these reports have made, and will continue to make, a valuable contribution to the policy approach for supports for lone parents by my Department.

My Department continues to work closely with other Departments on this issue. This includes working with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs on childcare, with the Department of Education and Skills to follow up on the recommendations of the report on barriers to Third Level education for lone parents and plans to consult with the Department of Justice and Equality as part of the review currently underway in the area of maintenance.

Budgets 2015, 2016 and 2017 included a range of measures that benefited lone parents. I ensured improvements for lone parents in particular in Budget 2018 by introducing the following measures:

- Income disregard for lone parents on OFP and the jobseeker’s transitional payment (JST) to be increased from €110 a week to €130 a week with effect from 29^thMarch 2018;

- The increase for a qualified child (IQC) rate to be increased from €29.80 a week to €31.80 a week with effect from 29^thMarch 2018.

A number of other budgetary measures will also benefit lone parents, including the €5 primary rate increase, the additional week to the fuel allowance and the Christmas bonus of 85%, which was paid in early December.

These changes will see a lone parent on OFP or JST working 15 hours a week on the National Minimum Wage gain by almost €1000 per year in their overall income.

My Department’s social impact assessments of the last four Budgets 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.

I intend to continue to prioritise supports for lone parents, particularly those which incentivise work over welfare. I stated at the publication of the Indecon Report that I intend to provide for the further review of the OFP 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.