Lone parents ‘need more cash aid’

THOUSANDS of lone parents are struggling to make ends meet and slipping into increasing levels of poverty, a study has found.

The study, Living on the Book, carried out by OPEN, the network of lone parent groups, is highly critical of the One Parent Family Payment scheme.

It says the weekly payment of €134.80 and €19.30 for each child is an inadequate means for a one-parent family to live on and offers little incentive to consider employment as an alternative to long term welfare dependency.

Recipients who do secure a job are only allowed to earn up to €146.50 a week before they lose their social welfare entitlements. It used to be that such parents could earn up to €293 a week and keep half of their benefits for one year, but this “transitional payment” was cut by the Department of Social and Family Affairs last November.

“The recent removal of an element of the payment which gave lone parents a final transitional payment while at work beggars belief,” Frances Byrne, director of OPEN said. “This is highly regrettable given Government policy which is to favour work over welfare. It will undoubtedly stop some lone parents from accessing employment.”

The study examined the daily life of 16 lone parents in four different counties who were on the One Parent Family Payment over the course of a year.

It found that lone parents have the highest rate of consistent poverty among all social welfare recipients, a trend which the Economic and Social Research Institute has shown to be on the increase.

The numbers claiming the One Parent Family Payment have almost doubled in the last ten years, from 40,700 in 1994 to the level of 80,928 in 2004.

The study highlights the disparity between the payment levels and the spiralling cost of childcare.

It also observed that for those parents who wish to work, no allowance has been made for the fact that childcare costs have doubled since 1997.

“The research found that the income of most of the lone parents interviewed was inadequate.

“Some of the women who were working struggled to make ends meet, but for the women relying solely on the payment the situation is often grave,” Ms Byrne added.

OPEN has called on the Government to review the One Parent Family Payment and for the earnings disregard in the scheme to be increased to a maximum of €325 per week.