MARY HARNEY undoubtedly touched a chord with the electorate when she suggested that young single mothers should be encouraged to live with their families rather than receive State rent support for moving out.
There is a widespread perception that there are thousands of young girls in deprived urban areas who become pregnant as a passport to independence, a State subsidised home and an income from the State for life.
However, this does not accord with reality. Department of Social Welfare statistics show that two thirds of single mothers receiving lone parent's allowance live with their families and four fifths do not receive any rent allowance. Also, the lone parent's allowance is not drawn throughout the child's dependent life.
The average time spent on lone parent's allowance by unmarried mothers is estimated at about three years, young mothers move off the allowance to take up employment or to get married.
At the end of 1996, 50,500 people were in receipt of the lone parent's allowance, including the deserted, separated and widowed. The Department says the number of unmarried lone parents receiving it was 37,500. Between them, unmarried lone parents had 51,664 children and social welfare spending on these families was £166 million or 4 per cent of all social welfare expenditure.
All lone parents receive the same payment, £79.70 with one child, plus £15.20 for each extra child. This is not means tested as rigorously as other social welfare payments, in that the means of other members of the recipient's household are not taken into account, so a young mother living at home will receive this allowance.
Lone parents can earn up to £115 before it starts to affect the allowance, to encourage them to enter the workforce. They also receive the same child benefit as everyone else, £29 a month for each child. Two thirds of single mothers were living in their parents' home when they applied for the allowance, according to a Department spokeswoman, and the same proportion lived at home when they came off it.
Twenty per cent of unmarried lone parents, about 7,500, claim rent allowance for private accommodation, according to the Department. A spokeswoman estimated another 13 per cent, 4,735, were in local authority housing.
The rent allowance varies according to the type of accommodation, the rent charged and the area. It is means tested and is provided on the same basis to all.
They pay the first £6 rent themselves and the balance is paid if the health board, which administers the scheme, thinks the accommodation is good value. The maximum payable for a single parent with one child ranges from £55 a week in the North Western health board area to £80 in Dublin and £90 by the Western Health Board.
Mr John Murray, spokesman for Ms Harney, said yesterday the party wanted to avoid the isolation of young mothers and to ensure they had backup and support to seek employment. "Which is more compassionate - forcing young single women to isolate themselves in council flats alone or allow them to live with a support group?" he asked.
Asked how his party would encourage young mothers to stay in the family home, Mr Murray said that "there could well be" an allowance to the parents, in cases of financial hardship. The party was not suggesting young mothers be forced to live in homes which were not suitable.
Ms Janice Ransom, co ordinator of One Parent Exchange and Network, wondered if this would be similar to the requirement of young unemployed people to prove they could not live in the family home because of abuse and to produce a letter from a Garda to support that.
She said many young mothers with children lived in housing which other people would not take. She agreed they could be isolated there and lacked support services either for parenting or for moving into the workforce. However, she said the issue of single parenthood was complicated, not easily answered by quick fix solutions. Supports were necessary for lone parents to participate fully in the labour market.
Ms Freeda Keeshan of the Parents Alone Resource Centre in the Dublin northside suburb of Coolock, said it found that in its 10 years of helping lone parents, few mothers under 20 were living independently. Those who were usually were in their early to mid20s and most were living in private rented accommodation which, in the main, was overpriced, difficult to obtain and unsuitable.
"What is needed is the increased provision of quality public housing," she said.
A working group of officials, with experts from research bodies such as the ESRI and Combat Poverty, has been set up to examine the issue of payments to different kinds of families, including lone parents, the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, announced on Thursday.