Irish DPB

Ireland are planning reforms to their welfare assistance for one parent families.

There are currently some 80,000 lone parents - almost 98% of them women - in receipt of One Parent Family Payments at a cost in 2005 of €770 million. When other supports and entitlements are taken into account, including Child Benefit, Rent Supplement and Family Income Supplement, total expenditure is over €1.3 billion. Despite the unprecedented growth of the Irish economy over the last decade and record spending on social welfare, lone parents remain one of the groups who are particularly vulnerable to poverty.

Ireland has virtually the same population as New Zealand. We have 110,000 single parents on benefit - 37.5 percent more.