‘Reduction of the Earnings Disregard will Create Further Poverty Traps for Lone Parents’
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2011
Barnardos, OPEN and the National Women's Council of Ireland Dublin, 8 December 2011 – Barnardos, OPEN – national network of one-parent families – and the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) have called on TDs to ensure that measures to change the income disregard applicable to the One-Parent Family Payment are removed from the Social Welfare Bill 2011 ahead of the vote on the Bill tomorrow, Friday 9th December. The organisations said that the reduction of the earnings disregard will create further poverty traps for lone parents trying to stay in or enter the labour market, trapping parents in very low paid, part-time employment or making them wholly reliant on the social welfare system. Frances Byrne, Director of OPEN, said: 'On one hand the Government says it wants to encourage lone parents to take up or stay in jobs, while on the other introducing measures in the Budget that make this impossible for parents. The real effect of the plan to reduce the earnings disregard for the One Parent Family Payment to €60 by 2016 will be to trap lone parents in low paid jobs or force them to remain reliant on social welfare. It's a catch 22 that which will drive one-parent families into worsening poverty.' Orla O'Connor of the NWCI said: 'In 2010 half of one-parent families had to go without essentials such as adequate heating for the home, substantial meals, clothing and footwear because they were unable to afford them. It is unconscionable that Budget 2012 should introduce measures that further pushes these families into poverty and deprivation.' Norah Gibbons, Barnardos' Director of Advocacy, said: 'Poverty traps like those being created by this proposal keep families in intergenerational cycles of disadvantage. We urge the Government to remove this measure from the Social Welfare Bill in order to alleviate some small amount of pressure from lone parents. Vulnerable families are bearing the heaviest load as a result of the recession; this small move towards redressing the imbalance of Budget 2012 must be made.'