Gender bias and welfare fraud
The report referred to the fact that “more than 15,000 one-parent family payments (OPFPs) were scrapped or reduced by the Department of Social and Family Affairs last year”.
The cuts were made after officials reviewed the entitlements of recipients and investigated fraud and abuse.
The substantial number of people who had allowances reduced was then ‘explained’ by Camille Loftus of the lone parent support group, OPEN.
She said statistics showed one in three lone parents was living in consistent poverty and if they were defrauding the State, they were “doing a really bad job of it”.
She added that many people could be receiving payments without knowing they were not entitled to them.
One week earlier, in a report headlined ‘Only one in six absent parents pays maintenance’, you informed us that the Department of Social Affairs chased after 11,528 absent parents last year — mostly fathers, often referred to as “deadbeat dads” — but ordered just 1,842 (16%) to make maintenance payments. It is obvious from both reports there is a certain amount of fraud being perpetrated by parents of both genders, yet with the fraudulent claiming of one-parent family payments, it is not mentioned that this is mostly claimed by mothers with the figures being defended or explained by Ms Loftus.
However, you do not seem to treat the non-payment of child maintenance by fathers with the same attitude, referring to absent fathers as “deadbeat dads”.
If fathers who do not pay child maintenance are referred to as “deadbeat dads”, then why are mothers who dishonestly claim one-parent family payments not referred to as “fraudster mums”?
Why was there no spokesperson giving an opinion defending the “deadbeat dads” in the way Ms Loftus was given the opportunity to set a context for “fraudster mums”? I would expect some sort of balance in reports like this.
Cathal Garvey
Stanley Heights
Slane
Navan
Co Meath
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