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Single parents facing cut of €80 per week
More than 3,000 single parent families across the city and county are set to lose up to €80 a week from July.
That’s according to Fianna Fail TD Éamon Ó Cuív, who wants a halt put to what he called the ‘cull’ of the One Parent Family Payment.
The reduction comes on the back of a decision of Social Protection Minister Joan Burton to cut the age threshold from 16 to seven.
And the Galway West Deputy wants the Minister to reverse that reform – the latest in a line of changes to age and income criteria over the last three years – ahead of its introduction this summer.
“There are more than 3,000 one parent families in Galway for whom this payment is the difference between keeping their heads above water and falling into poverty,” he said.
“The latest cut, which is due to take effect from July, will see these parents put under increasing financial pressure and may even force some parents out of the workplace in order to continue to qualify for the payment.
The former Fianna Fail Minister claimed that Minister Burton promised to freeze proposed changes to the One Parent Family Payment three years ago, until appropriate childcare supports were in place.
“Despite rising childcare costs and cuts to child benefit the Minister is reneging on her commitment and pressing ahead with age eligibility changes. This is in addition to cuts following the lowering of the income threshold,” he said.
Deputy Ó Cuív claimed that one parent families had borne the brunt of some of the harshest cuts brought in by this Government.
“Minister Burton has stood over reductions to the Back to School and Clothing Allowance as well as a new tax on maternity benefit, and is now continuing with her attack on families, and vulnerable families in particular, with this latest round of cuts to the One Parent Family Payment.
“These underhand changes are cruel and unnecessary and will further add to the financial burden that families in Galway and right across the country are under.
“Many are already extremely stretched as a result of high education and childcare costs and this payment may be the difference between parents staying on in work or being forced to leaving their employment and enter the welfare system.
“Essentially, if Minister Burton continues to ram through these measures, she will be condemning a generation of children to a life of poverty and inequality,” he concluded.