State of the Nation’s Children Report published today

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The State of the Nation’s Children Report: Ireland 2012 has been published this afternoon; the fourth report in a biannual series. Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, launched the report which shows that the number of children in Ireland has increased by 13.4% since 2002. The Minister said it pointed to the need for a greater focus on vulnerable children, further investment in early-childhood services and improving the affordability and accessibility of childcare.

Other findings include:

  • Ireland now has the highest proportion of children in the EU – in 2011, there were 1,148,687 children in Ireland, accounting for 25% of the population and the number of children in Ireland increased by 13.4% between 2002 and 2011.
  • Significant decrease in number of babies born to teenage girls – a decrease of 36% between 2007 and 2011.
  • The number of children in lone-parent households is up 10.2%.

“This growth of the birth rate further underlines how urgently the economic value of childcare as a component of economic growth and social investment must be recognised,” responds Stuart Duffin, One Family’s Director of Policy & Programmes. “Social investment in childcare is now fundamental to growth. By placing childcare in the context of education it will have greater potential to reduce child poverty and benefit children and families.”

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has identified publicly supported childcare and early childhood education as critical to a nation’s wealth and citizen well-being. Countries with the healthiest families and sustained economic development are also most likely to view a licensed childcare system as an essential part of the public infrastructure supporting the economy, according to County of Wellington Childcare Services, New Zealand (November 2012).

The World Bank supports such action as an investment in human capital that prioritises the development of less costly preventative interventions for young children who are vulnerable to developmental delay, rather than more costly remedial action for older children and adults (www.worldbank.org) and states that “well conceived early childhood development programmes are a cost effective means of strengthening society.”

As we see births rise in Ireland, we must tailor supports for those families which may be disadvantaged or have life-chances restricted because services such as affordable and accessible child care are not in place for all. This is a specific fulcrum for those currently parenting alone or who may parent alone in the future, as Government strategy channels lone parents to take up work as the key means of getting them out from poverty.

Report on Child and Family Income Support published

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The Report on Child and Family Income Support by the Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare was published yesterday and has caused considerable concern for parents across Ireland. The report, however, is an advisory report submitted to Government for consideration; Government has not agreed it. No decisions have been made on this and no timeline or plan on operationalisation has been put in place.

One Family will continue to advocate that Family Income Supplement (FIS) be changed from a ‘threshold’ benefit to one that tapers. Thresholds create poverty traps which are discriminatory and should be moved away from as part of a progressive social protection framework.

It was stated yesterday at the report launch that the computer systems of the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Revenue ‘talk to each other’ now and that they can identify 87% of claimants. This would make paying FIS as a taper and through the wage packet a good and efficient option.

Included in our pre-budget submission for 2012 was our recommendation to restructure Child Benefit to ensure that it is tailored to those most in need.

Click here to read the press release issued at the launch of the report, and here to download the report.

Below are links to some of the media coverage in response to the report:

The Irish Times | ‘No decision’ made on child benefit

Irish Examiner | Burton wants social welfare system that encourages people to work

TheJournal.ie | It’s easy for ministers on high salaries to ignore the importance of child benefit

The Irish Times |  Prospect emerges of cutting child poverty while saving public funds

Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2011 finds lone parent households are most deprived

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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) in Ireland for 2011, a household survey covering a broad range of issues in relation to income and living conditions.

These new figures show that lone parent households are the most deprived, with 56% classified as deprived. According to the survey, 232,000 children are at risk of poverty, which represents 18.8% of all children in Ireland, a slight increase from 18.4% in the previous year. One in seven of those at risk of poverty has a job, according to the statistics, and over half (50.7%) of the population would be at risk without social welfare payments.

Responding to the findings, Stuart Duffin, One Family’s Director of Policy & Programmes, said: “The urgent problems today are the growing number of families making the difficult choice between heating and eating, or getting sucked into the spiral of rent arrears, pay day loans and debt. A central focus on family incomes has to remain, alongside a step change in government strategy on living wages, affordable housing and affordable childcare so that more families can balance their budgets and give their children decent life chances.”

Stuart Duffin further commented: “One Family hopes that Ministers will now take a robust evidence informed approach to policy and start providing income security and making work pay for those families and children in most need.”

Read the CSO press release here. Further analysis by The Irish Times can be found here: Quarter of population classified as deprived | Unravelling the facts, and myths, of Irish inequality | Record numbers in poverty, CSO

 

 

One Family’s Stuart Duffin on RTE calling for Child Benefit reform

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Listen back to Stuart Duffin, One Family Welfare to Work Manager, speaking out on RTE 1’s Drivetime yesterday, calling for reform of the Child Benefit system.

He is at 01:57:00:00 towards the end of the show, here is the link

http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A3367480%3A83%3A14-08-2012%3A

One Family,Ten Solutions – cost neutral solutions to help lone parents back into work & education

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Stuart Duffin, One Family, Welfare to Work Manager, was at the 66th Labour Party Conference in Galway over the weekend promoting One Family’s course of   action in response to Budget 2012.  All 750 copies of the paper, One Family – Ten Solutions – Smarter Futures were taken and read. One Family is advocating cost neutral administrative and management approaches which would facilitate those parenting alone back into work and education. There is overwhelming support for our stance on flexibilites; that is, that lone parents who transition to Jobseeker’s Allowance should not be required to be available for fulltime work but rather for 15 hours per week during school hours. This should mitigate many of the child protection concerns and parental caring responsibilities that have arisen around 7 year olds being left on their own. A series of flexibilities or exemptions are required as per the UK and many other countries to allow for a lack of childcare, lack of transport, a child with a disability, separation, bereavement, etc, This is a first step in a journey to ensure that lone parents and in particular children in lone parent families do not suffer disproportionally in the current economic climate.

See the full document here Ten Solutions

For more information on flexibilities for lone parents who are in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Look here

Here is some relevant Census 2011 data on Lone Parents in Ireland:

1 in 8 people in Ireland live in a one-parent family,  567,311 persons out of a general population of 4,588,252.

1 in 4 (25.8%) families with children in Ireland is a one-parent family, 215,315 lone parent families out of 834,266 families with children.

Over half a million people live in one-parent families in Ireland, 567,311 persons

13.5 per cent of one-parent families are headed by a father, 29,031 lone fathers as opposed to 186,284 lone mothers.

1 in 5 (21.7%) children live in a one-parent family,351,996 children in one-parent families, out of a national total of 1,625,975 children