A special "stay in school payment" should be provided for young parents who remain in education after having children, according to an organisation working with one-parent families.
In its pre-budget submission One Family, formerly Cherish, called on the Government to make provision for such a payment in the forthcoming budget.
It also called for an €18.50 a week increase in the one-parent family payment as well as realistic increases in children's allowances and back-to-school clothing and footwear payments.
In addition it called for a once off grant of €400 for one-parent families when they have a child transferring from primary to secondary school. It also wants medical cards for all those under 18 years of age.
Candy Murphy, policy and campaigns manager of One Family, said a combination of Government-created poverty traps, lack of affordable childcare and lack of access to education, training and employment opportunities was resulting in a high rate of welfare dependency among one-parent families. "You are 3½ times more likely to live in poverty if you are a member of a one- parent family," she said.
There are 154,000 one-parent households in the State, 85 per cent of them headed by women. The majority or 40 per cent are headed by widowed persons, 32 per cent by separated or divorced persons and 24 per cent by single people.