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CHANGES TO THE lone parent allowance that will require single parents in receipt of social welfare to seek employment or training as soon as their youngest child reaches seven years of age kicks in today.
From today, some lone parents will be expected to enter into the jobseekers’ allowance programme, where they must be available for and seeking work.
Under the Jobseeker’s Allowance scheme, lone parents whose youngest child is aged between 7 and 13 years inclusive will move on to the Jobseeker’s Transitional payment.
Lone parents whose youngest child is aged 14 years or over will now have to apply for the normal Jobseeker’s Allowance.
It’s estimated that up to 30,000 single parents will miss out on the payment.
Poverty
Lone-parents groups have slammed the move, with some stating it could push one-parent families into homelessness.
Kerry Anthony, CEO of Depaul said recent figures from the Department of the Environment reveal the week from 20 -26 April there were 504 families who were statutorily homeless in Ireland.
Of that number, 322 households – or 66% – were one-parent families.
The advocacy groups said the hardest people to be hit are those already in part-time employment who could lose anything anything between €10 and €140.
They raised questions about the moral reasoning and fiscal soundness of the cuts to the One-Parent Family Payment, stating:
“We call upon the Government to pause and reflect that 138,000 – or one out of every eight children – in Ireland experience consistent poverty on a daily basis.On a human level, this amounts to an average of 3-4 children in every classroom in Ireland suffering chronic poverty.”
‘Better off’
Speaking on the RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke yesterday, Tánaiste Joan Burton said those that work 19 hours a week “will be far better off”.
However, some single-parents say there are no extra hours for them and even if they do work more, there is no affordable childcare in place.
When introducing this measure, Burton told the Dáil that she would only do so if there was a “credible and bankable commitment” for an improved childcare system.
She has faced criticism that this has not been achieved by government, yet the measures are still coming into effect.
She admitted yesterday that Ireland’s childcare system is “not as good as I would like” and Ireland is not at the Scandinavian level yet, which is her aspiration.
“Are we at the Scandinavian model? No, but what we have is a hugely improved investment into community based childcare.”
Cost of childcare
Burton said government is doing more than ever before to tackle the increasing costs of childcare, spending more than €250 million on community childcare initiatives and training.
From today, those affected will move from the one parent family payment to a new transitional benefit.
The Government said its aim is to enable one-parent families move out of welfare dependency.
Burton explained that those lone parent’s in the home on social welfare receive €218 per week which puts them at a high risk of poverty, but by working 19 hours on minimum wage would increase their income as they will also be entitled to other government initiatives like the back to work scheme.
Burton said the Department of Social Protection will help people claiming the benefit to find employment.
… we are going to help them get those hours…
The Tánaiste added that she had increased child benefit for all parents in the last budget and she hopes to do it again.
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I thought raising children and tending a home was a full time job,that was being spoken of as unpaid labour not so long ago ,musta missed something
Absolutely spot on. Successive governments doing their best to destroy family life of all types.
A full-time job requires an employer. When one does housework, the house doesn’t really serve as their employer now does it?
self employed perhaps
childcare? what about the hours when the child is supposed to be at school? they should be there at least twenty five hours a week. I’m sure the live parent could work for 19 of those
*lone parent
And what about holidays? Good luck trying to find a job that allows you 3 months off in the summer and random weeks here and there.
To be honest, the only suitable jobs for single parents are actually in schools. But there isn’t a massive supply of those!
It can be very hard to find a job that have hours similar to school hours. A lot of employers need you to be flexible/work weekends. I found it extremely hard to find one so ended up working evenings cleaning but that meant paying for childcare and less time with my child.
I was a lone parent for years and I managed to go back to college and work. It can be done, even in the holidays. Childcare costs are crazy but it’s always been very expensive, I’ve just had to manage. I know I won’t be popular but it’s worth trying to look at a more long-term picture. I struggled financially for years until I was qualified and thus financially independent. It’s worth looking at it further along rather than the immediate. We also need to tackle those who just don’t want to get a job, every excuse gets thrown around as to why they can’t work but the reality is many just don’t want to
Attack on lone parents,
I check my privilege when reading this article.
As mother of 3 I am fully aware how impossible it is to source any job that starts at 9.30-10am, ends 12.30-1pm.
I have degree, 18yrs work experience behind me.
140,000 children extra are in poverty since L & FG came into power.
Now they want push more over bread line, after cutting retraining programs for lone parents, no childcare investment.
Lone parents take up 15% social welfare budget.
Look up people, top civil servants have received 5million in increments & bonuses since 2009.
L & FG attacking the most vulnerable again.
As women, who been privileged to have education & support from family with child care.
I will now join the fight against attack on Lone Parents, this Children Rights issue, how can we accept as society that this policy will push more Irish children in to poverty?
Please stop with Daily Mail comments of Thatcher era, ‘born poor, stay poor, it is your fault’
As if we blame the individual we never look at government policies which trapped thousands people & children in poverty.
We never look at where the money is been reassigned.
I have believe Irish people do not want kids going school hungry?
And not have very young girls make a career choice to have babies.
Yes there is people that abuse the system and you will always have that but what about the genuine people? These are the ones that will suffer. For example – someone that is a lone parent and has worked decides to go back to education but are not entitled to the back to education as they work. So the predicament is – either they go to uni, work part time and try be a parent to their child/children but who suffers? Or they give up on bettering themselves and stay unqualified and unskilled in a minimum paying job but are there more for their child/children.
In a country that has no abortion if u make one mistake you have to have the child. Let me tell u something after that your life is over and it’s all about the child.
Why are similar measures not in place to get 2 parent families back to work? Childcare is a real problem for lone parents. In a 2 parent family it’s not an issue if one parent works.
I’m not advocating that this should happen, just pointing out a huge anomaly in the logic. As far as I’m aware in a 2 parent family, there’s an allowance for the other adult. If Joan was serious about welfare being a barrier to work, then the other adult’s allowance should be cut.
Constitutionally, In Ireland a family is two married people. A lone parent family, according to the same document isn’t a family as there is no marriage. The constitution states that that the state will support families so that “the woman doesn’t have to leave the home” (paraphrasing that bit, that’s essentially what it says). Lone parent support, while an absolutely essential element for many families (I certainly define them as a family!) is technically unconstitutional while there are no supports for two parent families, as In effect the state is supporting a family type other than the constitutional one and therefore operating contra to it.
All that said, childcare should be state funded full stop, until a certain age. Like it is in a Scandinavian country I can’t think of the name of right now. I don’t have any children, and I’d certainly support a 2% tax increase if it was for child support for everyone.. It’d probably mean actually more money in the economy than the opposite.
Do you know what the real irony is Anne?
Many of these women will be “encouraged” to do a fas/solas course in Childcare or Healthcare. Both roles presently only offering scheme work or zero hour contracts.
They will be expected to mind other people’s kids for regular 9-5 hours on such a low income, one would question if they could realistically take up this sort of work and make enough to pay their bills.
Its somewhat fine if your parents can help out with minding your kids, doing school runs etc, and I guarantee this is largely what FG/Lb are betting on.
Yet, what about the women who dont have this support structure?
Its a dirty move by this Govt.
What about the situation where both parents are together and both have to work – should they not also get hand outs?
If they are on low incomes they already do get ” hand outs ” . It’s called family income supplement. There’s always the ” what abouters” on the journal. . Ready to distract away from the issue at hand and do the governments a favour. These are people who survive on the least amount of money we are talking about here. Last time I looked parenting a child alone was not a criminal offence so people need to lighten up or would they rather the women who find themselves parenting alone to be put back into madelenge laundries and their children sold off to people in the US?
Another attack by Labour on a vulnerable section of our society.
Labour are the real victims in all of this ..Did you not hear of the Labour Senator who was attacked and spat at by those lone parents yesterday outside the Dáil yesterday ,whilst he was sat in his car surrounded by gardaí?
Imagine if they were carrying balloons , the riot squad would have been deployed .
Does anyone know why they stopped allowing comments (and removed all the published ones) on that article about the water protesters?
Its called neo liberal slavery. Pushing people back to work into low paid jobs……..Good for business !!!!
Still where are all these “jobs” anyway? If labour want to pursue this policy than it should sort out the working conditions first.i.e. get rid of zero working contracts. raise the minimum wage and bring back sufficient payment for overtime and weekend / bank holiday payments.
If employers cannot “afford” to pay week end premiums then they should not operate on weekends. This should apply to everyone especially the multinational fast food chains.
Working is now slavery. People shouldn’t get handouts forever.
Joseph, SOMEBODY has to do the low paying jobs? Unless you want to pay more for many basic services, those who are employed in those services will be low paid. Childcare is a great example of this problem where nobody wants to pay for it, but we don’t want those employed to provide the service to be un-educated.
I believe in helping those people who are in low paying jobs (and taxes should be more balanced), but I don’t think that somebody in a job requiring zero skills or experience should be paid the same as (for instance) a teacher, which requires years of additional education and work to qualify for their chosen career, before even attempting to actually get their foot in the door of a school.
What you are essentially calling for is Communism. Everyone earning the same wage regardless of the work they do, it’s utility to society or the quality of work they do.
The irony of it all!!
This is an extract from the democratic programme of the first Dáil.
“It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children, to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter, but that all shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as Citizens of a Free and Gaelic Ireland”
Goverment of Ireland 1919.
The Irish state has been a complete and utter disaster since 1923. People of Ireland deserve more but when will they get the country we have all been longing for……
Not until we have direct democracy and recall.
If there were plenty of vacant jobs out there and affordable childcare, this wouldn’t be AS bad, but there isn’t. Those that do have a few hours work per week have only those few hours for a reason, extra hours are not available! Mothers should be rewarded for staying at home and bringing children up right, but instead they are required to be just tax generators like the rest of us drones.
I cannot wait for the straw that breaks the camel’s back because we Irish cannot take much more of this.
This is a disturbing development, by Labour,it will be intolerable, for lone parents, who also consist of Seperated Parents, childern, will suffer, lone parents, need to work, part time, some had to make the terrible choice to be a lone parent, This is another stupid idea.
I challenge any td to do a mother’s work for 2 weeks and then make the decision.
Of course they do. They want everybody to pay for the big mess they’ve created, and someone has to pay for their massive unjusified wages, expenses, pensions.
A huge percentage of mainly fg, labour and ff politicians will contest the next election that were around as politicians over the last decade. These people should have to shoulder a huge amount of the responsibility for messing up the running of the country and allowing it to be exposed far more to the worldwide financial crisis than most other countries. Yet these same people have suffered no accountability and will be looking for your vote in the next election. If a company ceo makes horrendous mistakes in running his company and the company nearly goes bust, he/she’d be fired. They wouldn’t be hired again by the board of management to do the same thing. Therefore, politicians should be given one chance, if they feck up, they should be banned from politics and contesting any more elections. This way, we wouldn’t be getting the same muppets, we’d clear out a lot of the dead wood in irish politics, and we’d give someone else a chance in politics. They might do a better job, in fairness, they could hardly do much worse!
These cuts are actually hitting lone parents who already work the hardest. If you don’t have a support system to help out with childcare then you are screwed. It’s as simple as that. It’s one thing paying for childcare for a few hours after school but in the summer when it’s all day you can forget about it. It’s too expensive. Also most jobs have late hours or weekends and childcare costs are huge for those hours. You will see more unqualified unregistered people minding kids in their homes as it will be cheaper for parents. That isn’t always quality childcare as I found out personally with my grandchild. The perception of lone parents as ” young ones trying to get free houses” is just a nonsense nowadays. Most single parents cone from relationships and marriages that gave broken down. There are those who have had partners die too and most are women there are plenty lone male parents out there too. The truth is for many lone parents out there struggling and going it alone there are partners getting off Scot free. They don’t do any or very minimal childcare and often only pay out maybe 10 euro a week in child support. Let’s get them back to work so they can share childcare costs and pay adequate child support payments. Society needs to stop villifying lone parents. Especially women. That needs to start with this government.
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THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS RIGHTLY THERE ARE NO JOBS OUT THERE UNLESS JOAN WANTS THEM TO BECOME PROSITUTES?
Wouldn’t surprise me at all?
Debate debate wondering headscratching pondering why would they it makes no sense they say their is more mo ey in the country why target people on the margins if there is. Why would a woman do that to a woman what is the governments angle I cant figure it out in comes the cut it all dies down another cut comes along the people effected by the last one are forgotten about as people try and figure out the next one and why they are targeting us. Its like tho if a severely disabled man has to come on national tv begging for them to stop persecuting people then you know without question that your country is going down the tubes ponder it all you want scratch your head deliberate your government are implementing policies that are getting people used to been driven into poverty. They will divide the people of tho country through class distinction and use the primitive instincts of people to group together out of where they see themselves on the social ladder. Lets not kid ourselves the 29th century model of societal rule is back I was a golden era for the so called elites and now they want it back. When the illusion of hour own place in the world comes to a sudden stop and reality dawns it will probably be too late. I predict the new social model or as Enda calls it the new reality that 3/4 of the population of tho country will be debt serfs living mundane lives just cash cows to be milked furiously while our children look on next in line knowing no better thinking this must be the way it I sure our parents who loves us never minded it do it must be the best way. The acceptance of the social degradation of Irish society is the dual fault of elite ideology and absolute subservience to that ideology by the public. If you are gay and now you can marry have children does that mean all our problems have disappeared . Were 7 years in and I think the people are who see most as vermon to be used for power and money are definitely kicking our asses. You can actually see why they think that way would you respect a population of people that does not respect themselves. Conform and be miserable look in the mirror and Lie to yourself. Their will be no positivity until reject the negativity that our so called leaders in reality have foisted upon us. This is the way it goes swim or sink. There are no heroes from the past to ride in and save the day the rejection of intimidation starts from within . They fear intelligent people using their minds to set them free they would rather to promote the idea of individual crusade against a system but everyone knows you cannot win a fight on your own. If people want cuts reversed they will have to be prepared to shame the government into it. Single mothers all mothers on the street resisting the cut would get it reversed. But like the Aldi ad most modern Irish like to winge but never cause a fuss We could learn a thing or two from old age pensioners. The old stock the government still fear them because they take no shit. Haven’t been brainwashed you see they know exactly who they are what they expect and are comfortable with fighting for they think Is right always as a unit. Not individuals with delusions . As a group .
So do I.
If u are getting rent allowance any money u earn gets taken off tat. am I rite? so wats da point in paying child care wen u won’t b earning any ting extra. sumone correct me if I am wrong.
i am single mother, i have just comeback from my maternity leave full time to my job, i had to live my boy back home with my parents 5 hours flight !! between rent and cost of food transport and everything i will have nothing even for food, more than that even i will put him in creche full time most of them they work monday to friday finishing at 6 i do work week ends and evenings, i have looked for community creches is huge waiting list…..
as mother and Citizen at least i need to have my boy close to me is not my fault if have a baby, i don’t want to stay at home and get social welfare, i want my boy to have everything in his life care good education…..
i don’t know really what to do
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