Pre-Budget Submissions

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Pre-Budget Submisson 2012

One Family’s Pre-Budget Submission to the Department of Social Protection

One Family pre-budget 2012 submission

                                                                                                                   

 

Submission to:  Department of Social and Family Affairs

Pre-Budget Submisson 2011

Introduction

One Family is again framing its submission in a way that takes account of the serious economic downturn currently being experienced in the economy and in recognition that, while short term financial problems must be a key concern, The Department of Social Protection, supported by other Departments, should:

  1. Base all decisions on the premise of not increasing poverty among one-parent families
  2. Develop and implement a coherent strategy to reduce child poverty which is strongly and increasingly concentrated in one-parent families
  3. Ensure that proven supports to assist lone parents to secure and/or progress into employment, education and skill development pioneered to date by FAS and the Department of Social Protection in partnership with One Family are maintained and built  on
  4. Ensure that existing supports to assist families going through crisis pregnancy, marriage and relationship breakdown and new family formations are not dismantled
  5. Build on positive supports for families and children already in place, e.g the universal free preschool year.

One Family 2011 pre-budget submission sent 21 09 10

Pre-Budget Submission 2010

Introduction

The 2010 pre-budget report has framed its submission around the economic downturn. One-parent families are facing increased financial and other pressures due to the cutbacks already imposed by Government in the earlier budget in 2009 and in the 2008 budget. These cutbacks already seriously affecting one-parent families include:

  • Reductions in Rent Supplement and increases in rent contribution required by the tenant
  • Removal and reductions in payments for children – removal of the Early Child Care Supplement and Child Benefits cuts for 18 year olds
  • Removal of the Christmas bonus for those on welfare
  • Exclusion of those on the One-Parent Family Payment from many of the new training and education initiatives introduced by FAS
  • Cutbacks in education grants – often in the middle of courses
  • Cutbacks in support for schools and for school children in low income families.

One Family 2010 pre-budget submission 15 10 09 tk

Pre-Budget Report 2009

Introduction

This report has framed its submission in a way that takes account of the serious economic downturn currently being experienced in the economy and of the expectation, as forecast by the ERSI in its latest Medium Term Review, that the economy will soor return to a long-term growth path.

One Family 2009 pre-budget submission 11 September 2008

Pre-Budget Submission 2008

Introduction

This report has framed its submission around the 3 main areas indentified in the National Economic and Social Council report on the Development Welfare state (NESC Report No.  113.  May 2005)

These areas are

  • Income Adequacy
  • Services
  • Innovation

One Family pre-budget submission October 2007

Pre-Budget Submission 2007

Introduction

One Family welcomes this opportunity to submit our pre-Budget submission to the Department of Social and Family Affairs. This year we are framing our submission around the ten areas that we believe are vital to addressing the inequalities experienced by one-parent families in Ireland today.
Pre-budget-submission 2007-PDF

Ten steps to equality for all families – One Family Pre-Budget Submission

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National one-parent family organisation One Family in its Pre-Budget Submission today called on Minister Brennan to tackle ten key areas to combat the massive inequalities experienced by one-parent families in Ireland:

1. Adequate incomes for one-parent families dependent on social welfare
2. Adequate supports to ensure that lone parents in work can access well paid and meaningful employment
3. Poverty traps that prevent one-parent families moving off social welfare dependency
4. Barriers that currently prevent one-parent families achieving equal access to housing and healthcare
5. Adequate supports to assist families experiencing family breakdown and new family formation
6. Recognition and support for the role of parenting in one-parent families
7. Inequalities faced by migrant one-parent families
8. Equitable pregnancy services for all
9. The rights of non-marital one-parent families
10. A coordinated strategy to achieve equality for all one-parent families

Speaking at the launch of the organisation’s Pre-Budget submission for 2007, One Family’s Policy & Campaigns Manager, Candy Murphy stated that: ‘while poverty and financial insecurity remain major issues for many one-parent families and must be concretely addressed, the Minister, as Minister for both Social Welfare and Family Affairs, must ensure that Budget 2007 also focuses on key issues for families, including:

* adequate supports to assist families experiencing family breakdown and new family formation;
* recognition and support for the role of parenting and shared parenting in one-parent families; and
* commissioning research on the rights and needs of non-marital families.’

‘Families today face many challenges in terms of managing competing pressures’ she continued. ‘For many one-parent families, those challenges become almost insurmountable when combined with the barriers that exist to accessing supports during family breakdown situations. Children are particularly vulnerable and in need of support during such difficult times – therefore a key recommendation includes research on and funding for pilot child contact centres.’

Commenting on the recommendations made in the submission, One Family Director Karen Kiernan noted that ‘a coordinated, comprehensive strategy from Government is needed to achieve equality for all families in Ireland. It is time to stop deceiving ourselves that we live in a fair nation with equal opportunities for all, when one in six families are left to flounder without adequate supports. We welcome Government moves this year to review the supports provided to one-parent families, but this must be backed up by a recognition that one-parent families, like all families, come in all shapes and sizes, with differing needs. A one-size fits all strategy of labour market activation may only seek to further marginalise Ireland’s most disadvantaged families.’

One Family are confident that the practical recommendations they suggest are very achievable and can provide an effective beginning to the formulation of a coordinated strategy to support one-parent families in Ireland.

Download a pdf of the full Pre-Budget Submission here.

ENDS

For further information or a copy of the full submission contact:
Ruth Coleman, Communications Manager 01 662 9212/086 174 2315
Candy Murphy, Policy & Campaigns Manager 01 662 9212
Karen Kiernan, Director 01 662 9212/086 850 9191

Education key to family well-being

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One-parent family organisation One Family today announced a 20 per cent increase in the number of one-parent families and professionals accessing their services in 2005.

Commenting on the significant increase in the demand on One Family’s services at the launch of their new Policy Paper: Ensuring Quality of Life for All One-parent Families, One Family Director, Karen Kiernan, said that ‘the most difficult thing about the increase in families needing our services is that for many, they are trapped in impossible circumstances that they cannot change.’

‘Many solo parents who have fought against the odds to get back into education or employment find themselves struggling to provide a basic good quality of life for their families’ she continued. ‘Balancing work, education, and family and personal life while also having access to affordable, suitable housing and childcare is like managing a complex jigsaw. Just as many families see a positive future in sight, they realise that they are missing a vital piece of the puzzle, such as affordable childcare, and find themselves back where they started. One Family’s Annual Report 2005 highlights the fact that one-parent families come in many different shapes and sizes, with very different needs.’

In the draft Social Partnership agreement, ‘the Government and the social partners recognise the central importance of the family unit to the lives of children and the need to strengthen the system of supports available to children and their families.’ With one in six families in Ireland now a one-parent family, the time has come to face the reality that if we are to really give all children an equal chance, one-parent families must be supported in a coordinated manner to achieve the basic quality of life that all families deserve.

Candy Murphy, Policy & Campaigns Manager at One Family stresses that ‘we can no longer focus on the dichotomy of work versus caring responsibilities – 60 per cent of families on the One Parent Family Payment are already working, so it is no longer possible to say that work on its own is enough. The proposed reforms of financial supports for one-parent families focus on rebalancing the work–parenting relationship, rather than on looking at how policy can break the cycle of multiple inequalities experienced by many one-parent families. Modern life has become increasingly complex. Quality of life entails not only work and parenting, but also access to housing, healthcare, childcare, education and training, as well as to the resources required to participate in community life and in wider society.’

She went on to say that ‘having reviewed the available research, One Family is convinced that the provision of a wide range of education opportunities for both children and adults in one-parent families holds the key to a life free of poverty and inequality for such families. Such educational opportunities must include early childhood development and education, support for continuing participation in education for young parents as well as easy access to second chance education for solo parents, if it is to be successful in improving the overall quality of life of one-parent families in Ireland today.’

ENDS
For further information contact:
Ruth Coleman (Communications Manager) 01 662 9212/086 174 2315 or Karen Kiernan (Director) 01 662 9212/086 850 9191

Government Discussion Document on Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents

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Need for a Coherent Policy Framework

Overall, One Family believes that there is an urgent need to develop and implement a coherent policy framework for one-parent families that reflects the realities of their lives and those of their children.

The key objectives of this framework in our view would be: Read more

Domestic Partnerships

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Role of One Family

One Family works with all types of one-parent families as well as with new  and blended families. Much of our work revolves around issues related to the formation and ending of family relationships. In all cases our primary concern is the impact of such situations on the child, on ensuring the availability of adequate supports for children and on supporting legal frameworks that overtly address the best interests of the child.

We therefore focus our recommendations to the Working Group with this priority in mind.
Submission-on-Domestic-Partnership-May-2006-PDF