Lone parents may get €70m boost

The state’s 80,000 lone parents could benefit from an extra €70m a year under radical new proposals to tackle child poverty unveiled today.

Abolishing the current One-Parent Family Payment and introducing a new means tested parental allowance for low income families were among the recommendations announced.

Allowing cohabitation and enforcing education, training and employment are also listed as key changes needed to secure a brighter future for youngsters.

There are currently 130,000 children to 80,000 lone parents, with benefits currently totalling €1.35bn a year.

Despite the payouts, loan parents and their youngsters remain three times more likely to live in poverty than any other group, with over 30% in consistent poverty in 2004. A further 22% of children were identified as being at risk of poverty.

Launching the Government discussion paper Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents, The Minister for Social Affairs, Séamus Brennan said they had an obligation to take children in Ireland out of the poverty trap.

Long term welfare dependency, he said, was not in the best interests of the lone parent, their children or society in general.

He called the report the most comprehensive review of payments undertaken for several years which, in the long term, would increase employment, training and education supports giving more social and financial independence.

“A key focus for me has been to ensure that the social welfare system meets the needs of all of our citizens in 21st century Ireland,” Minister Brennan said.

“What kind of social policy says a father of a child can’t stay with a child? I have inspectors calling to doors checking that the father is not in a house. I can’t get my head around that.

“Lone parent children are three times what the poverty rates are in the rest of society. We have to deal with that.”

Minister Brennan said the reforms were serious and complex and findings of planned consultations will be presented to Cabinet.

If approved, the move will be complimented by the 500 million euro being ploughed into childcare provision over the next five years.

“I want to stress that this is not about bringing about savings,” he continued. “It is about introducing more enlightened social policies that directly target and benefit the lives of tens of thousands of people, especially children, who are for the most part caught in restrictive poverty traps.”

The report puts forward an integrated programme to support the movement of lone parents into more full-time and quality employment, preventing long term dependence on social welfare income support.

It also ends the cohabitation rule and allows those in receipt of parental allowance to earn up to 120 euro a week without it affecting their allowances.

Minister Brennan added: “Lone parents are a valuable resource. Behind the statistics are very real lives, day-to-day pressures, lives given to providing the best for children and lives searching for greater fulfilment.

“They have the added responsibility of providing care for their children as well as often being the sole breadwinner.

We have a responsibility to use the income support system and wider welfare supports to address the problems behind that income need.”