Burton offers new hope to lone-parent families

The Government will not stop one-parent welfare payments once a child reaches the age of seven, unless a Scandinavian-style form of childcare is put in place.

Social Welfare Minister Joan Burton previously announced that for new applicants, from May 2012 the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the one-parent family social welfare payment would reduce to 12 and that it would reduce further to age 10 in 2013 and to age seven in 2014.

The rationale was that “long-term welfare dependency and passive income support were not in the best interests of the person, their children or society” and that “the best route out of poverty and social exclusion is through paid employment”.

Campaign groups labelled the move “regressive and counterproductive”, and the worst thing to ever hit lone parents. They said the cuts would increase poverty for both those parents and their children.

Speaking last night during the second stage of the Social Welfare and Pension Bill 2012, Ms Burton said the Government was still of the opinion that “supporting parents in participating in the labour market once their children have reached an appropriate age will improve their own economic situations and their social wellbeing as well as that of their families”.

However, she said that, since she had proposed the measures, there had been significant concern that seven was too young especially about leaving a child alone without adequate childcare while the parent made the first steps back to the workplace or into education and training.

“I entirely agree that seven is too young for anyone to seriously contemplate these things without there being a system of safe, affordable and accessible childcare in place, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries whose system of social protection we aspire to.

“That is why I am undertaking tonight that I will only proceed with the measures to reduce the upper limit to seven years in the event that I get a credible and bankable commitment on the delivery of such a system of childcare by the time of this year’s budget. If this is not forthcoming, the measure will not proceed.

“I will be engaging with my colleagues, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Education and Skills to establish a coordinated cross-departmental approach to ensure the required level of services are in place to support lone parents as their youngest child reaches the relevant age thresholds.”