THE ESTIMATED savings to the State from the controversial reform of single parent benefits will be close to €30 million per annum, the Department of Social Protection confirmed last night.
The Social Welfare Bill, published last Friday, proposes that single parents whose youngest child is over 13 will no longer be able to claim one parent family payments. Under the current system, a parent is entitled to receive the payments until the youngest child reaches 18, or 22 if the child is in full-time education.
In the wake of criticism of the Bill over the course of the weekend, the department yesterday moved to clarify some of the measures.
In background briefing papers disclosed to The Irish Times, the department pointed out that the changes would be "tapered" in over a period of six years. It added that a parent no longer entitled to the allowance as a result of the changes could claim jobseeker's allowance. The basic rate for both allowances, at €196, was exactly the same.
Under the phasing-in, the upper age entitlement for children will be reduced to 17 in 2013; 16 in 2014; 15 in 2015 and 13 in 2016.
The effect is that all single parent families with children aged 15 or under in 2010 will be affected by the change from 2013.
The estimated savings will be progressively higher each year: starting at €1.1 million in 2011; rising to €20 million in 2014; and being “close to €30 million” in 2016 when the changes come into full effect.
Overall State expenditure on supporting one parent families amounted to €1.16 billion in 2009, compared to €835 million in 2006 and €338 million in 1997.
In the briefing note, the department noted that a cut-off point of seven years of age was originally recommended in the Government discussion paper on lone parents allowance in 2006, but was raised to 13 following consultation.
“Internationally, there is a general movement away from long term and passive income support. In the UK lone parents are required to seek work when their youngest child reaches 10. In Norway, Sweden, Germany and Italy there is a work obligation when the youngest child is aged three,” it states.
The briefing note also stated the Government believe that a lone parent receiving the payment until the child is 18, without any requirement to seek employment or training, is “not in the best interests of the recipient, their children or society”.
Yesterday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen rejected claims there was anything underhand about the manner in which proposed social welfare changes were issued late on Friday afternoon. He said Mr Ó Cuív had outlined in detail the basis for the decisions behind the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010, “and the need for people to recognise the very long transitional period”.
The matter will be raised at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting tonight, although deputies contacted by The Irish Timeswere more concerned with the manner in which the more contentious elements of the Bill were communicated rather than the issues themselves.
Chairman of the parliamentary party John Browne, and others, said Mr Ó Cuív’s predecessor Mary Hanafin had flagged the changes last December.
Fine Gael’s spokeswoman on social protection Olwyn Enright said Mr Ó Cuív had displayed “a staggering amount of political naivety” since taking over his new brief. Labour Party spokeswoman on social protection Róisín Shortall described the Bill as “all stick and no carrot”.
Treoir, a support organisation for unmarried single parents, said it welcomed the changes in the legislation to support lone parents into employment. The organisation’s assistant chief executive Margot Doherty said: “To the vast majority of lone parents out there who are panicking we say – don’t.”