LONE-PARENT SUPPORT:CHILD BENEFIT must not be cut and must remain a universal payment, the lone-parent support organisation One Family has said.
In its pre-budget submission, the group calls on the Government to make modest increases in supports to low-income families with children.
It says the Government has stated its desire to reduce poverty among lone-parent families, a group which has one of the highest rates of poverty in the State.
“We are calling on the Government to start making this a reality in 2011 by making modest increases in supports for children in low income families,” said policy manager with One Family, Candy Murphy.
“More and more lone parents are contacting us because they are having difficulties in making ends meet for their families. A recent ESRI study has found child poverty has become increasingly concentrated in one-parent families.”
Some 17.8 per cent of lone parent families are in persistent poverty compared with 4.2 per cent in the general population.
Among the calls One Family is making on the Government are that it:
- maintain the one-parent family payment at its current level
- increase the qualified child allowance by €4 per week;
- reform the Family Income Supplement, which is paid to poorer families as a “top up”, to make it more accessible to lone-parent families and to increases it by €10 per week.
