Single parents may lose €60 a week over social welfare hitch

SOCIAL WELFARE Minister Mary Coughlan is to review an anomaly which would see hundreds of single parents losing up to €60 a week in benefits because of a €10 pay rise from FÁS.

The minister has asked officials in her department to examine an alternative course of action and said it would not be acceptable for people to be penalised because of a pay increase.

However, she did not give any guarantee the anomaly would be corrected. “No one wants a situation where people aren’t encouraged to leave welfare and go back to work,” she said.