The Government remains determined to coax single parents off welfare and back into jobs, despite mass protests outside the Dáil last week. On July 2, the age limit for the One-Parent Family Payment will be reduced to seven for most claimants. This means that around 32,000 single parents will lose their payment next month.
Article By Lorraine Courtney from the Irish Independent
The move is the final stage in a Government plan to phase out these payments once children reach seven, as part of the strategy to encourage single parents off welfare and into jobs.
One-parent families will now move to a new transitional jobseekers’ payment once their youngest child reaches seven. But they will be €53 a week worse-off if they also work in low-paying jobs, while a lone parent, working 20 hours per week on minimum wage, with one child, will lose a massive €108 per week.
Sometimes, people can be too poor to work. Back in 2011 when Joan Burton announced these new reforming measures, she promised not to proceed with them unless she could also introduce affordable childcare. The Minister said that the new rules would not be implemented unless there was a “system of safe affordable and accessible childcare in place, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries to whose systems of social protection we aspire.”
Read the full article by Lorraine Courtney on The Irish Independent Website
