18/02/2015

Single Parent Welfare Reform To Be Debated

The Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection is to debate a welfare reform proposed three years ago by the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton.

The committee will discuss a change that will see single parents with children aged 7 moving from the One Parent Family Allowance to either Jobseeker's Allowance or the Back to Work Family Dividend.

The change will come into effect on 02 July and is being done to encourage lone parents into education or employment.

Unemployed lone parents will not be affected as they move to Jobseekers Transition payments, but single parents working 20 hours a week on minimum wage will lose €50 a week.

(MH/CD)

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