Benefit changes see working lone parents suffer income loss

Much-criticised changes to the One Parent Family Payment resulted in a fall in income of between 1% and 2% for employed lone parents compared to the previous level of benefits, making employment slightly less attractive.

A new report to be published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) states the changes had little impact on lone parents who were not working and who had negligible or small increases in take-home income.

In Budget 2010 the Government announced that changes to the One Parent Family Payment would mean it would row back from being paid up to the time a child turns 18 — or turns 22 if in education — to being cut off when the child turns seven.