Budget Will do Nothing for Poverty in One-Parent Families

One Family sought real increases in social welfare to reduce poverty and to provide better services and innovative programmes for one-parent families in today’s Budget (5 December). Recent CSO figures revealed that the consistent poverty rate for one-parent families increased from 27% in 2005 to 32.5% in 2006 making one-parent families 4.5 times more likely to live in poverty than other family types. Budget 2008 provided a real opportunity to address the serious increase in poverty among this vulnerable group and yet Government have failed to respond with adequate increases in supports for one-parent families.

Candy Murphy, Policy Manager, One Family, this evening said: “What one-parent families got was a lot less than what is needed. The Government successfully dampened expectations but it did nothing to prioritise areas such as child & family poverty despite commitments given.”

Ms. Murphy continued, “One Family is extremely disappointed by the €2 per week increase in the Qualified Child Allowance and the €20 increase in the Back to School Footwear and Clothing Allowance. These increases do not reflect the Government’s commitment to tackle child poverty. An increase of €100 per annum in the Early Childcare Payment will do nothing to help those parenting alone to cope with increasing food and other costs. The increases seen in Budget 2008 are insufficient to deal with the serious issues facing one-parent families in Ireland.”

ENDS