Minister Mary Hanifin indicated in her end of year interview with the press that she is considering reforming the One Parent Family allowance. There is also a good review of the Minister’s proposals written by Fiona de Londras in Human Rights in Ireland, which highlights a possible moralistic attitude towards single parents.
I think we need to reform social welfare policy, why do we need categories of people in receipt of social welfare? Disability, older people, lone parents, carers and so forth. In her interview the Minister also spoke about the need to look at the Disability pension and the growing numbers of people claiming disability.
People and their children need support if they are not in a position to work. That should be the starting point, then target supports in the area of childcare, education, mental health, and back to work schemes.
One-Parent Family Entitlements 2010
Information from http://www.welfare.ie and http://www.citizensinformation.ie (accessed 29/12/09)
One-Parent Family Payment €196 per week €849 per month €10,192 per year.
Qualified Child €29.80 per week €129 per month €1,549 per year.
Child Benefit €34.60 per week €150 per month €1,800 per year.
Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance €200 per year.
Fuel Allowance €20 per week (32 weeks) €700 per year.
Total cash €277 per week €1,203 per month €14,441 per year.
Rent Support; €214 per week €930 per month(max) €11,160
Tenant must pay €24 per week = €190 per week €823 per month €9,880
Total including rent €467 per week €2,023 per month €24,287 per year. (plus medical card)
The census 2006 recorded 189,213 lone parent families in Ireland. This was expected to increase to over 200,000 by 2010.
All families with a single parent, entitled to claim One Parent Family Payment.
One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) is a payment for men and women who are bringing children up without the support of a partner.
As above, the payment is €24,287 per year in Dublin. This works out at approx €5 billion per year, €90 billion over a childhood.
(200,000 family’s at €25kpa x 18 years= €90,000,000,000)
60% of those receiving One Parent Family Payment are in employment.
http://www.combatpoverty.ie/povertyinireland/oneparentfamilies.htm
Just to let people know the link to my post on one family allowance is now here: http://www.humanrights.ie/index.php/2009/12/30/reform-of-the-one-parent-family-allowance/
This is because we’ve moved to a new domain (www.humanrights.ie)
Sorry for any inconvenience!