The Government is finalising plans which would move lone parents from welfare to work by making it obligatory to begin seeking employment or training when their children reach the age of eight.
A series of key meetings are due to take place next week to pave the way for an announcement on lone parent welfare reforms later in the year.
The one-parent family allowance, worth around €165 a week, is set to be replaced with a new parental allowance set at a similar level.
The new allowance will be paid to all parents on social welfare with children under a certain age, as an alternative to unemployment allowances or other benefits.
The move would also remove the controversial cohabitation rule which encourages those on single-parent allowances to live alone
Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan, who is involved in the final discussions over the reforms, told The Irish Times yesterday he was hopeful the reforms could bring about new opportunities for lone parents caught in welfare traps.
The latest discussions on the detail of the reform centre on the age a child will be when the welfare reforms become active for lone parents.
There is growing consensus within the Government that the parent would be obliged to take up education, training or employment once a single parent's youngest child reaches eight.
Over a four-year period, the new parental allowance would be tapered off to zero, to act as an incentive for parents to seek employment.
After this period, a lone parent still on welfare would be entitled to unemployment benefit, which obliges recipients to seek work or education.
One Family, a support group for single parents, yesterday urged that education or work opportunities would have to be sustainable and accompanied by support such as childcare.
Karen Kiernan, director of One Family, said: "This has to be about more than just jobs.
"Some 60 per cent of lone parents are already working, so it's not as simple as that.
"Most employment is low-paid or part-time. To make the leap to a well-paid job, you need to be able to cover costs like childcare and housing as well."
Ms Kiernan said the organisation was convinced that provision of a wide range of educational opportunities for both children and adults in one-parent families held the key to a life free of poverty and inequality.
"Such educational opportunities must include early childhood development and education, as well as support for continuing participation in education for young parents and easy access to second-chance education for solo parents, if it is to be successful in improving the overall quality of life of one-parent families in Ireland today," she said.
The One Family organisation also announced yesterday that it recorded a 20 per cent increase in the number of one-parent families and professionals accessing its services last year.
