Some local lone parents face welfare cuts from next week

Hundreds of local families in receipt of the One-Parent Family Payment could see cuts to their payment, once changes to the allowance are implemented next week.
From Thursday next, July 2, parents in receipt of the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) are due to be moved to different payments; mainly to the newly introduced Job Seekers Transitional Allowance (JSTA) when their youngest child reaches the age of seven, or to Job Seekers Allowance (JSA).
The Department of Social Protection cannot yet provide figures for Westmeath and Roscommon on the number of parents who will need to move to a new payment.
However, One Family - Ireland’s organisation for people parenting alone, sharing parenting and separating - said there are 3,645 lone parent households in Westmeath and 2,501 lone parent households in Roscommon.
Both One Family and SPARK (Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids) have criticised the changes to the payment.
Stuart Duffin, One Family Director of Policy & Programmes, explained that at present a person in receipt of the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) can earn €90 per week without it impacting on their payment, but once they are moved over to the Job Seekers’ Transitional Payment, they will only be able to earn €60 per week.
“Many parents are already in work, they are going to initially lose €30 per week. There should be incentives to get people back to work,” said Mr Duffin.
He said there was no real clarity around the changes in payment and said there is an assumption from Government that all one-parent families are the same.
Mr Duffin said because of the changes in the payment system there are some people who are in receipt of rent allowance who will be forced to give up work. He said the changes are extremely complex and more clarity is needed.
“Parents are being asked to put their trust in a system that has penalised, judged and targeted them for years; and on top of this, a system which now seems to remove their parenting status when their child reaches seven years of age.
SPARK has also slammed the reform and said it will lead to huge income losses for our poorest families.
“In addition they are also the most gendered attack in the history of the state as 98% of those effected are women,” the group said in a statement.