Single-parent families ‘driven out of work’

Single-parent families are being effectively pushed out of work and into long-term poverty traps due to poorly thought-out Government policies on low-paid salaries, out-of-school care and housing costs.

One Family, Ireland’s national organisation for people parenting alone or who share parenting with a former partner, made the claim in a detailed new report into the hidden situation.

Speaking after the launch of the annual review document, which can be read at www.irishexaminer.com, group officials said despite repeated poverty warnings Government is still failing to help single parent families struggling to make ends meet.

One Family said State cuts are consistently hitting single parent homes through hidden combinations, inadvertently putting “insurmountable barriers” between them and staying in work.

The group said that the situation is causing untold damage — both in terms of the impact it has on families today and the likely increased cost caused by the difficulties to the country in the future.

“Poorly planned policies are pushing more people parenting alone onto social welfare full-time as they cannot afford to work, attend education or get workplace experience due to Government cuts,” said One Family chief executive, Karen Kiernan. “This makes no sense and is counter-intuitive.”

“On the one hand, Government is forcing people onto the live register, even when their youngest child is seven, whilst at the same time making it harder for them to stay connected to the labour market as the income disregard [a form of support for single parents moving from long-term social welfare to low-paid work whereby a portion of gross weekly earnings is not taken into account] has been slashed.

“We know that work isn’t working for far too many families.

“We must move on from attacking those parenting alone to addressing real needs by helping people stay in work by increasing the income disregard in Budget 2015.”

Among the issues One Family wants Government to address in Budget 2015 are:

-That staying in employment “must pay” for low-income families. Specifically, the group said the reduction of the “income disregard” — the amount a lone parent receiving a one-parent family payment can earn without losing supports as they return to work — should be increased after being cut from €146.50 to €60 per week;

-Out-of-school childcare needs to be recognised as a vital service and supported so parents can access education, training and work;

-And the single person child carer tax credit to be removed as it discriminates against those sharing parenting, most often against fathers, and is “out of step with the realities of contemporary Irish family life”.

The One Family comments came a week after a report on the realities of single parent families struggling to cope due to the recession made similar pleas for Government action.

The St Vincent de Paul report, which is based on 61 one parent families known to the charity out of 215,315 nationwide, said the households are turning to “legal and illegal” money lenders.