OPEN Press Release on Farmleigh Forum on Lone Parents' Proporals
OPEN challenges other Departments to follow Minister Brennan’s lead
For Immediate Release 27th of April 2006
Today, while attending the Consultation Forum in Farmleigh House hosted by Minister Séamus Brennan, OPEN, (One Parent Exchange and Network) outlined the concerns of its 84 member groups about the Government Discussion Paper: Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents. While welcoming the spirit of many of the reforms OPEN has serious reservations about the practical implications of the proposed reforms. "The main challenges are in 3 key areas: childcare provision; education & training; and flexible work options", said Frances Byrne, Director of OPEN, "The key to getting a decent job, that offers the chance of promotion, a career and financial independence, is education and training". "This is of particular concern to lone parents – 47% of whom have no formal education qualifications." added Byrne, "The skills-based training provided by FÁS that provides an excellent route to a meaningful, well-paid employment is often only provided on a full-time basis, starting at 8.30am. While the proposals recognise that quality training options will have to be made more flexible and accessible to lone parents trying to combine work and family life, there’s no detail within the Government Paper as to how or when this will happen".
Camille Loftus, Head of Policy & Research at OPEN, who also spoke at the Consultation, continued, "Furthermore in the workplace, there is broad agreement among social partners and beyond, that much remains to be done to provide flexible options that meet both employee and employer needs – but the proposals are again conspicuously lacking in detail in this respect. As sole parent and sole breadwinner, lone parents require such flexibility in greater numbers than other parents might." The issue of childcare was also highlighted by OPEN. "All parents know the difficulties of finding appropriate childcare. These problems are even more acute for people parenting alone. In the document, Government recognises these issues and it seems to accept that it will have to put systems in place to ensure that lone parents can get access to quality, affordable, accessible childcare. But beyond that, it is short on detail – there is little in the way of specific proposals as to how this will be achieved in practice," added Ms. Loftus.
Ms Byrne further highlighted the question of the financial implications of the reforms. "During OPEN’s internal consultations, one of the first questions to come from lone parents was – what will happen when the Parental Allowance finishes? How will that affect my family’s income? The Government document provides no details on this, so OPEN crunched our own numbers, and we were surprised at the results. Today we were able to present a number of scenarios* to the Minister which showed how two lone parents, doing exactly the same job could have very different incomes (by €4,624 a year) for no other reason other than the age of their child. Our calculations indicate that the withdrawal of the Parental Allowance would create serious poverty traps. However Minister Brennan assured OPEN and the wider Forum that in the implementation of the proposals that there would be ‘no question’ of any sharp drops in income for families", added Byrne.
"The reforms will only be relevant if they tackle the disproportionate levels of poverty suffered by lone parents and their children. Currently over 30% of lone parents and their children live on incomes so low that they cannot afford basic necessities. Significant detail is missing. Without a comprehensive, resourced, and time-framed implementation plan which reflects a whole-Government approach, the proposed reforms of the income support system run the risk of further entrenching the disproportionate levels poverty experienced by lone parents and their children," concluded Ms Byrne.
Further information:
Niamh O’Carroll: 087 628 6171
Frances Byrne: 086 814 3297
Camille Loftus: 087-9790985
Note to Editors and Producers
The central proposal of the Discussion Paper is to abolish the One Parent Family Payment, which currently can be claimed until the youngest child is 18, without being obliged to seek work. It will be replaced with a new Parental Allowance, not be restricted to lone parents. Every family without an income from work would be eligible, including cohabiting and married couples. For lone parents, this allows them to move into a new relationship, without a financial penalty, if their partner is also on social welfare or in a low paid job. While the Paper offers various age-related milestones for when the Parental Allowance will end, it clearly favours the withdrawal of the new payment when the youngest child turns 8. After that lone parents, and the partners of unemployed people, will be obliged to find work. Poorer families will be denied the option of having a stay at home parent. However, the proposals would allow unemployed people look for part-time work (19 hours a week) rather than the full-time requirement that currently exists for those on unemployment payments.
*CASE STUDY
Given the Department’s stated preference for the new Parental Allowance to be withdrawn at the age of 8, OPEN developed scenarios which examined the proposed future situations of two lone parents – “Jim” with a child aged 5 and his next door neighbour, “Jacinta” who has an 8 year old. We have put these two neighbours, working 20 hours per week on the National Minimum Wage in their local shop. We have chosen lone parents with one child as this is the case for 60% of one-parent families. We have imagined that each parent lives with their own family, so rent supplement which complicates (and indeed reduces) the net income sum does not arise. In the new proposed scenario, Jim will receive € 463.75 per week, while Jacinta will get €374.82 - € 4,624 less per year. The sole reason for this is that Jacinta’s child is eight. Jacinta’s weekly income will have fallen by €19.23 per week on her child’s 6th birthday, as this was the cut-off for the new childcare supplement introduced by Minister Cowen in this year’s Budget; and will fall again on the 8th birthday of her child.
For further information on the case studies, please see www.oneparent.ie
This page was updated on 27th April, 2006