How much do one parent families in Ireland get in social welfare and other benefits??

In addition to the One Parent Family payment and rent allowance, some may qualify for a medical card, winter fuel allowance (€22.50 pw from October to March) and Back to School Clothing and footwear allowance.
 
Don't beat yourselves up too much about it guys whos going to turn ye over in ye nursing home beds after ye spoiled privileged kids bang ye in there. are ye going to ask them than how much ye have cost the state. your life someday might depend on a child of a single parent .
 
whos going to turn ye over in ye nursing home beds after ye spoiled privileged kids bang ye in there.

are ye going to ask them than how much ye have cost the state.

your life someday might depend on a child of a single parent

Hi Pat

One of the problems though is that the very high levels of social welfare and benefits create a dependency culture. Some of these kids will never work and will probably be turned over in their beds by people who have worked all their lives or by immigrants.

Brendan
 

I live directly next door to a nursing home. The only Irish national working there is the owner. All others are Asian.
 
Still a lot of irish working in nursing homes down here in the west, The difference is that you can still get by on a modest wage down here not like Dublin you can buy a nice semi D for 100 k you can get 3 pints for a tenner a soup and a sambo for 6 euro in local cafe I don't know too many dole spongers everyone is having a go they are a very small minority of people that do take advantage but in general people along the west cost have always been know for there great work ethic.
 
I guess there are so many social problem among some lone parents, a vast amount do a great job and we mustn't tar them all with the same brush.

I can never understand why they have to have breakfast clubs in some schools so the kids can be fed before lessons start. Porridge, fruits, toast etc is not expensive, the money is not been spend on the priorities. Perhaps food stamps is the way to go, like in America.
 
This thread is obnoxious. I am a single parent who works full time to pay for a mortgage and childcare. I should also point out that I waited not just until my 30's but until I was 40 to have a child and ended up a single parent statistic through no fault of my own. Sh8t happens. It's called 'Life'.

Why are you singling out single mothers as creating a 'dependency' culture/generation. 'Single mothers' are after all, the parent that STAYED. Not all of us are here as some kind of 'career move' as it was implied in an earlier post and let me tell you, it is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet.

I wish you all well with your perfect, suburban 2.3 child lives (that you waited until you were in your 30s and financially solvent to have).

I resent as much as any of you, the heavily dependent welfare culture that exists in this State as one of the 'squeezed middle' that gets up early for Leo and pays her way. You might all put your heads together and think about renaming this thread and redirecting your frustration at those that do not contribute and have no intention of ever doing so.

But stop blaming single mothers and their kids.
 

Very good post. I agree..tarring all single mothers with the same brush is not on. Parents can become single for a plethora of reasons. Having said that, the way the incentives are set, it does facilitate the abusing of the system for those who may be strategically minded.
 
Precisely where in this thread did any person lay the blame squarely at the door of "single mothers"? Calm doon firefly and damno. The single parent allowance is allowing some people to fleece the taxpayer.
 
Ah Danmo you get inured to it.

Single parents , culture of dependency , unemployed households , public sector , trade unions , social welfare payments et al .

Just accept that it's a sounding board for a relatively small number of members which really has no effect on the real world .

Still good fun & enjoyable & educational diverse views abound
 
Of your list above desieblue i think the only 2 of the 6 you mentioned that folks might argue is problematic, and rightly so, is the dependancy culture and also unemployed households.

The other 4 are random sweeping generalisations that mean nothing unless you refer to a more specific aspect of those that you think members on here are harping on about.
 
I never get inured to being maligned. You're wrong - it's not just 'good fun'. Such views perpetuate a stigma of single parenthood and contribute to an already very uncaring society in general. You might take a minute to think about the women who have risked their lives to save their kids and get away from abusive or possibly alcoholic partners. You might have a think about some of the statistics mentioned here:
http://www.independent.ie/irish-new...ove-european-average-new-report-35917016.html
There is a perception in Irish society generally that portions of the population that are at a disadvantage are there due to some fault of their own. The logo for the Social Welfare is that of a hand and a bird. Social Welfare is designed (as far as I know) as a measure to help people in times of need during their lives and to get back on their feet and fly again. Yes, some people make a lifelong career of it but please don't make such sweeping generalisations.
 
I totally accept & agree with your views & I can only imagine how difficult it can be as a single parent to bring up children in straitened financial & emotional circumstances !

The polarising topics I referred to in my post attract an equally diverse range of views .

I think that Ireland as a fair & prosperous State has , to it's credit , introduced a relatively fair social welfare system although I do believe the restructuring of the lone parent allowance in 2015 was a retrograde step as was lowering payments to those under 25.

The point I was endeavouring to make that no matter what views are expressed here they have little relevance to what's happening in the real world.

The reference to good fun was rather cackhanded & I do apologise , it's never good fun being maligned .
 
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There is a perception in Irish society generally that portions of the population that are at a disadvantage are there due to some fault of their own. The logo for the Social Welfare is that of a hand and a bird. Social Welfare is designed (as far as I know) as a measure to help people in times of need during their lives and to get back on their feet and fly again. Yes, some people make a lifelong career of it

10 out of 10 Danmo
It is beyond me why people don't start questioning and point out the reason most families lost cant pay there mortgage after the crash was because of the social welfare system let them down ,
If we had the German social welfare system things would have being a lot different out come,
 
wow, as a single dad I find this thread pretty incredible. The torches and pitch-forks are out, never mind the massive sweeping generalisations about single parents and also their children.

Turn off Fox news for a sec and take a look at the welfare dept's own figures on the average time an individual single parent actually receives the benefits, and then divide it into the various 'types' of single parent. Pretty sure it was Joan Burton released them a few years ago responding to the perceived undetected fraud in this area.

They consider that couples in receipt of single parent welfare as:
- it was fraud, but they split up (and its then legitimate to receive it)
- they marry (and its legitimately removed)
- its fraud and detected (and its legitimately removed)
- they are actually a single parent (and they legitimately receive it - Plus people like me, they work full time and are taxed as income on the benefits)
- a widow remarries (legitimately removed)
- it's fraud and goes undetected


During Burtons reign, welfare also closed some loopholes regarding how many nights a child could spend in the other parents house in other for both of them to claim. Now only one can claim.

Seems to me that most of your issues would be resolved if they sorted out the (already pretty strict, but difficult to prove) rules on co-habitation. They're listed on the revenue website btw.

single parents account for 4.4% of the adult population according to the CSO, before you bear in mind that only one of the parents can claim the benefit and that many are then taxed on it, widowed etc and then theres the detected fraud and then there's the actual undetected fraud.

If you think your "neighbours mates single friend" is sneaking around defrauding the state, then do us all a favour, put the keyboard and the hand-lotion down and call Leo's fraud hotline FFS.
(Note my sweeping generalisation there ).

Can't believe you're ring-leading this Brendan.
Your original question asks "how much". The answer therefore is basic addition of a few benefits (see below). God knows we love our basic math.

So,
With two young children I get exactly €253 per week (€183+€30+€30 I think), plus a one parent family credit (again I think it's about €1600-1900). I then pay income tax on it at the higher rate.
It's about €6k pa after tax across the 3 of us.
Considering I can't leave the house to go to work, shops etc without a childminder, it's a fraction of my minder bills pa.
Thankfully we're lucky and don't rely on it, as I've a good job and chose to stay working.

Have some perspective folks
 
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As a single father I don’t have a problem with this thread.

The question was how much do one parent families get in welfare payments. That’s a question, not an accusation.

A working father who has his children half the time gets absolutely nothing. Their mother, who also works, (earning significantly more than him) and gets whatever support there is, as well as a higher tax free allowance. That’s unfair but in the majority of cases where one parent is not pulling their weight it is the father so it is understandable that the system is skewed towards mothers.


I know two individuals who bought houses and then rented them to the mothers of their children who fraudulently claim to be single parents. They live there with their partner and their kids. Both have been reported to Welfare but nothing has happened. That sort of thing, while not a big thing on a national scale, is an emotive example of what bothers people about our welfare system. I think it is reasonable to say that those people are part of the small group of people who are part of the long term welfare culture rather than being part of some sub-set which can be categorised as lone parents. In other words the people who abuse this part of the welfare system probably abuse the welfare system in general and are inter-generational scroungers.
 

Purple welcome back from your holidays,
Purple said.I think it is reasonable to say that those people are part of the small group of people who are part of the long term welfare culture rather than being part of some sub-set which can be categorized as lone parents.In other words the people who abuse this part of the welfare system probably abuse the welfare system in general and are inter-generational scroungers.

The biggest inter-generational scroungers are the local politicians who make a career out of building a local politics network around social welfare.just as above I know politicians from right wing parties who would be involved in trying to help people to abuse the social welfare ,from about 11 years ogo I could give an example of a family who never used the welfare system until marriage break up parents/son were well off bought house to rent out through agent to there daughter and family .husband at the time could not understand why wife would not stay in house with kids and he move out the penny dropped once family home was sold politicians in the know were up to there eyes in advising best way to make the most out of situation.

I seen the same thing happening Politicians pushing housing department to allocate housing before single person got married at the expense of single parent who would not be as well off/connected and could have done without being pushed down the housing list using pull.
in both cases there is no history of depending on social welfare ,
 
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The calculation is incorrect. To qualify for FIS you need to work 19 hours a week. At 3 hrs a day (assuming 5 days) that's only 15 hours disqualifying from FIS. Which is harsh when comparing to this person -

Someone just working would have to earn about €36k to get that.

I'm assuming this person is not a single parent? With two extra mouths to feed, clothe, shelter, school etc?
 
I wonder has anyone got the full cost of running the department of social protection not including welfare payments ,