Thousands of one-parent families are living in poverty and are the most disadvantaged of all social welfare recipients, a new study has concluded.
Living on the Book, published today by the lone parent groups network, OPEN, also found recent changes to the One Parent Family Payment was proving a disincentive to work.
The scheme, introduced in 1997, currently allows a lone parent to earn up to €190 per week for a year without losing benefits. But at the start of this year, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, removed the transition payment as part of cutbacks dubbed the "savage 16".
"This is highly regrettable particularly given Government policy which is to favour work over welfare. It will undoubtedly stop some lone parents from accessing employment," director of OPEN, Ms Frances Byrne, said.
Today's report supported research in May that indicated lone parents have the highest rate of consistent poverty among all social welfare recipients. Over the past 10 years, lone parents have fallen further behind income trends for the rest of the population, Ms Byrne maintained.
The OPEN study took place over a year and examined the daily lives of 16 families from four counties living on the One Parent Family Payment.
Ms Byrne said the research showed the payment in many cases was failing to relieve hardship, citing statistics from the Economic and Social Research Institute showing poverty levels in one-parent households on the increase.
In 1994, ESRI found 5 per cent of families in poverty were headed by a lone parent, but by 2001 the figure had risen to 20 per cent.
Ms Byrne said the Government should implement an independent review of the One-Parent Family Payment, as part of series of measures. There should also be a significant increase in the amount of money a lone parent can earn before losing entitlements and the transitional payment should be reintroduced.
Labour's social and family affairs spokesman, Mr Willie Penrose, has called for a review at the Department after it emerged that 44 per cent of appeals against decisions to deny social welfare payments had been reversed on appeal.
"It is clear from these statistics that many of these decisions were not correctly made in the first place. . . . this review of procedures is very important because it follows that for those who have sought an appeal there will be other people who have simply accepted a decision," the Westmeath TD said.