THE GOVERNMENT has been urged to provide more childcare and parenting supports to help lone parents move into employment. Most lone parents would like to work, but many need supports to do this, single parent support organisation, One Family, said yesterday.
Some 60 per cent of unemployed lone parents want employment and are looking for a job, new research by One Family revealed. The survey also found that 80 per cent of lone parents are either working, looking for work or are in education or training.
For many such parents, working is simply not financially viable, Candy Murphy, policy and research manager with One Family said. "People parenting alone have to organise their work around parenting responsibilities and childcare options, which means that most end up working part-time hours and experience limited financial reward in relation to employment," Ms Murphy said.
Government plans to help lone parents move to employment "must address these barriers and provide substantial parenting and childcare supports to lone parents in order to make work viable," she added.
Under a new tiered childcare payment scheme introduced in July, parents on social welfare, family income support and parents on a low income, received an increase in subvention for childcare.
The Government is drawing up reforms aimed at moving thousands of lone parents from welfare to work by making it obligatory for them to seek employment or training.
Under these plans, which have been under discussion for some years, lone parents would be required to engage in either work, training or education once their youngest child reaches a certain age.
One Family welcomed a commitment by Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin to "the importance of parenting". Ms Hanafin recently announced that from this month, 50 welfare facilitators would be available to provide one-to-one advice and support to lone parents on social assistance within months of the birth of their child.
"We look forward to working with her to ensure lone parents are fully supported in their parenting role," Karen Kiernan, director of One Family said.
"Lone parents sometimes face difficulties in parenting alone or sharing parenting because they must make difficult decisions alone or in highly emotional situations," she added. "Many feel they need support to negotiate these challenges and provide the best supports possible to their children while finding meaningful and sustainable employment to provide for their family," she continued.
A parent mentoring service which helps parents to communicate better with their children and helps parents to examine how their behaviour affects their children, was one of the achievements the organisation was particularly pleased with last year.
One Family launched its annual report yesterday which revealed that its service delivery increased by 5 per cent last year.
One-fifth of children live in one-parent families, according to the 2006 census. This family group is four times more likely to live in poverty than other families, a 2006 Eurostat survey showed.
The Government currently pays almost €900 million a year on the lone parents' allowance. It pays a further €200 million in supports, such as rent allowance, to single-parent families.