Lone parents urge removal of barriers to workplace

THE ORGANISATION representing 80 lone parents groups, Open, has called on the Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin to remove the barriers that it says prevent some single parents from working.

Open director Frances Byrne said that she welcomed the debate prompted by Ms Hanafin’s comments that the one-parent family payment should be phased out when children reach the age of 13.

“Most lone parents absolutely want to work and contribute to society and the economy,” Ms Byrne said.

“But the reality is that the barriers that exist, like childcare, access to education and training, are still real. On top of which we are now in recession.”

Ms Byrne said that the Minister had indicated she would adopt a “softly-softly” approach and there would be a “long lead-in time” to a change in policy.

“Meanwhile work can be going on behind the scenes. There’s no reason to postpone measures to support education and training for lone parents,” Ms Byrne said.

Ms Hanafin told The Irish Timesthat the Government's current policy was not working.

Continuing to make the payment until children are 22 if they remain in full-time education militated against lone parents having stable relationships, marrying or taking full-time jobs, the Minister said.

While she knew that some Cabinet colleagues would be “sensitive” and “wary” about changing the policy, she had told them the issue should be formally discussed by Government.

The Labour Party’s spokeswoman on social and family affairs, Róisín Shortall said a debate on the issue was needed, but it should not be confined to members of the Cabinet.

The Oireachtas committee on social and family affairs had been examining the matter and organisations representing lone parents had been invited to address the committee in the new year, she said. “This is a complex matter and there are no easy solutions. We certainly do need a debate on this issue, but not one that is confined to Cabinet members,” Ms Shortall said.

Meanwhile, Ms Hanafin said that unmarried parents should put the father’s name on the birth certificates of their children “as a norm”. There is currently no obligation to do so.

She referred to the Law Reform Commission’s recent proposal to encourage this in an interview on Newstalk radio yesterday.

“Personally, as a norm, I think the father’s name should be on the birth cert. A child has both parents, and I think a child is entitled to know and to have the support of those parents,” Ms Hanafin said.

She said that she knew there could be difficulties in cases of rape, incest “or some other horrific crimes” when the mother might not want to name the father.

The OECD has this year criticised Ireland’s relatively high level of spending on single-parent welfare benefits.

In a report comparing 30 developed countries, the OECD said that Ireland, the UK and New Zealand spent significant sums on lone-parent benefits that lasted until children were well into their teens.

“There is little or no evidence that these benefits positively influence child wellbeing, while they discourage single-parent employment,” the report said.

More than 87,800 people were in receipt of the one-parent family payment in 2008.

Expenditure on the payment increased by 10.9 per cent last year to more than €1 billion. Just over 1,800 of those who received the payment were men.