Sir, – In 2012 the Government announced that there would be changes to the lone parent allowance (LPA), changes which were to lift lone parents out of poverty and to enable them to return to education and work. I will receive my last payment on Thursday.
I currently live in a village in east Cork with my two children, aged 12 and 9. I am lucky to work in a permanent job-sharing position in Cork city. In recent years the children’s allowance has been reduced by €62 per month. To compound this, the LPA has been reduced by €58.80 per week. Overall that’s a weekly loss of €74.30 coming into our home.
Although I recovered some of this loss with the support of the family income supplement, it still lead to a reduction of €40 per week.
In July of this year I will no longer receive the LPA, which will result in a further loss of €75 per week. This adjustment will total at approximately €115 per week. In addition, during the months of October to March, I will no longer qualify for the €20 per week fuel allowance, as one of the conditions to be eligible was to be in receipt of the LPA.
This leads me to consider my two options ahead of me in July. Option one would be to leave my job of 14 years. I would then need to wait for nine weeks without assistance in order to receive job seeker’s allowance. I would then get €217.80 per week.
My mortgage is €160 per week. If I were to sell my house it would be at a probable loss. I would then need to apply for rent allowance until I could be rehoused by the Government. I would be completely dependent on welfare.
Option two would be to return to work full time. I would require more money for petrol and childcare. I would no longer qualify for our medical cards, the back to school clothing and footwear allowance and I would need to pay €350 a year per child for a bus to take my children to secondary school in the nearest town.
Although I would qualify for the family income supplement, the amount given is 60 per cent of the difference between the money I have every week and the money I should have every week.
My children and I would be seriously pushed deep into poverty.
Personally and more importantly for me, what will be the emotional implications for my family if I were to return to work full time? The key emotional times for children are mornings, school home times, meal times and bed time. My children are already living without one parent within their home; if I were to return to work full-time there would be no consistent parent within the home. Therefore, there will be consequences. It is my opinion that this may lead to children being troublesome in school, a reduced focus on school work and grades, resulting in the Government being requested to pay for additional support within the classroom.
What will be the implications outside of the school, in particular in a couple of years, when I will need to leave my children at home from 6.30am to 5.00pm during school holidays unsupervised?
Possible implications are that my children’s development and possibly their career prospects could be affected.
I believe that the LPA has allowed me to practice and enjoy a good balance between home and work which is not attainable without the continued support of the LPA. I would like the Government to continue its support for working lone parents until the children of lone parents have finished their education and to return to the earnings disregard of €147.50 instead of reducing it to €60.
The family home is the foundation of our society and we cannot underestimate the importance of at least one consistent parent within that home. The benefit for the Government in cutting the one parent allowance will only be a short-term financial gain and poses a threat to the wellbeing of my family and to thousands of others in similar situations. – Yours, etc,
KAREN STACK,
Cork.