Are we going back to the laundries for single mothers?

I'm going to buck a trend on this thread.
As a Male who has previously been in receipt of OPFA(It is not ''invariably'' a woman's payment, @2.5% of recipients are Male)
Getting back to work and away from the welfare dependence is incredibly difficult due to the way the system is currently setup!
It is meant to be a support, but it often forces a dependency.
As not only is there automatic assumption that anyone who is in receipt of that payment is female.
There is also a very very skewed support system in place around it.
Female recipients are offered training and course's usually in the childcare or caring for the elderly areas.
Courses that are basically designed to get a person off welfare but offer little scope for career development or any real semblance of a work/life balance.
However as a man, you get offered no courses!
No opportunity to retrain and indeed when I tried to gain access to certain courses I was told ''Ah sure your already well qualified and we don't have any programs in place for a man in your situation''

The focus after a child reaches 7, indeed the focus at any age!
Should be around ensuring
1. The child's wellbeing is paramount, and their will be some situation where either through lack of a family support network, Illness or isolation that a parent may genuinely be unable to ''afford'' to return to work without significant continuing support.
2. The parent has adequate access to affordable childcare(Subsidised or Tax Credited)
3. The parent has access to opportunity to appropriate educational and training courses to allow them to upskill for a job that can actually raise them out of the welfare trap, rather than giving them minimum wage opportunities and topping up their earnings via FIS or other welfare supports.
The earlier a suitable support and intervention is made to support a single parent...
The earlier that parent can get back to either education or employment, avoiding the welfare trap and ensuring the actual wellbeing of their child.
At 7.o the child is often in school meaning generally the parent can be available for work at minimum between 9am-2pm.....
Sounds good,
Try finding a job within those hours that can offer the wage that will pull one out of the welfare trap though

banie01 wrote: »

I'm going to buck a trend on this thread.
As a Male who has previously been in receipt of OPFA(It is not ''invariably'' a woman's payment, @7.5% of recipients are Male)
Getting back to work and away from the welfare dependence is incredibly difficult due to the way the system is currently setup!
It is meant to be a support, but it often forces a dependency.
As not only is there automatic assumption that anyone who is in receipt of that payment is female.
There is also a very very skewed support system in place around it.
Female recipients are offered training and course's usually in the childcare or caring for the elderly areas.
Courses that are basically designed to get a person off welfare but offer little scope for career development or any real semblance of a work/life balance.
However as a man, you get offered no courses!
No opportunity to retrain and indeed when I tried to gain access to certain courses I was told ''Ah sure your already well qualified and we don't have any programs in place for a man in your situation''

The focus after a child reaches 7, indeed the focus at any age!
Should be around ensuring
1. The child's wellbeing is paramount, and their will be some situation where either through lack of a family support network, Illness or isolation that a parent may genuinely be unable to ''afford'' to return to work without significant continuing support.
2. The parent has adequate access to affordable childcare(Subsidised or Tax Credited)
3. The parent has access to opportunity to appropriate educational and training courses to allow them to upskill for a job that can actually raise them out of the welfare trap, rather than giving them minimum wage opportunities and topping up their earnings via FIS or other welfare supports.
The earlier a suitable support and intervention is made to support a single parent...
The earlier that parent can get back to either education or employment, avoiding the welfare trap and ensuring the actual wellbeing of their child.
At 7.o the child is often in school meaning generally the parent can be available for work at minimum between 9am-2pm.....
Sounds good,
Try finding a job within those hours that can offer the wage that will pull one out of the welfare trap though

Can you not access FAS courses?

Potatoeman wrote: »

Can you not access FAS courses?

Online ones are available, but as I said generally hometimes are around 2.30pm for a child upto the age of 12.
Fulltime Fás courses usually require attendance until 4pm.
Meaning school collection, and childcare needs to be arranged and without a good support network this gets expensive.
And the same applies to the few Fás courses available in the evening, childcare still needs sorting.

My main point around the courses offered to the recipients of OPFA is that they are generally very deliberately targeted towards roles that would be traditionally female and are service orientated.
There are options around BTEA that weren't available to me as I already have a level8 qualification and as such I was precluded from retraining in a more employable feild.

banie01 wrote: »

Online ones are available, but as I said generally hometimes are around 2.30pm for a child upto the age of 12.
Fulltime Fás courses usually require attendance until 4pm.
Meaning school collection, and childcare needs to be arranged and without a good support network this gets expensive.
And the same applies to the few Fás courses available in the evening, childcare still needs sorting.

My main point around the courses offered to the recipients of OPFA is that they are generally very deliberately targeted towards roles that would be traditionally female and are service orientated.
There are options around BTEA that weren't available to me as I already have a level8 qualification and as such I was precluded from retraining in a more employable feild.

I feel your pain. I was made redundant just before my second child was born, thankfully my husband was working but I was badly in need of upskilling and just couldn't access anything, all the courses were full time and I couldn't afford childcare and the grant wouldn't cover an OU course or other distance learning.

banie01 wrote: »

Online ones are available, but as I said generally hometimes are around 2.30pm for a child upto the age of 12.
Fulltime Fás courses usually require attendance until 4pm.
Meaning school collection, and childcare needs to be arranged and without a good support network this gets expensive.
And the same applies to the few Fás courses available in the evening, childcare still needs sorting.

My main point around the courses offered to the recipients of OPFA is that they are generally very deliberately targeted towards roles that would be traditionally female and are service orientated.
There are options around BTEA that weren't available to me as I already have a level8 qualification and as such I was precluded from retraining in a more employable feild.

Is Springboard any use to you banie01? http://www.springboardcourses.ie/ If you're eligible for Springboard you can do courses at lower qualification levels than one you hold already.
You might be eligible for CCS childcare support for these courses. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/pre_school_education_and_childcare/community_childcare_subvention_programme.html

Also if you are doing a VEC/ ETB course through VTOS or BTEI or if you do a FAS course you might be able to avail of CETS childcare places: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/vocational_education_and_training/child_care_support_during_fas_training_courses.html

paperclip2 wrote: »

Is Springboard any use to you banie01? http://www.springboardcourses.ie/ If you're eligible for Springboard you can do courses at lower qualification levels than one you hold already.
You might be eligible for CCS childcare support for these courses. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/pre_school_education_and_childcare/community_childcare_subvention_programme.html

Also if you are doing a VEC/ ETB course through VTOS or BTEI or if you do a FAS course you might be able to avail of CETS childcare places: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/vocational_education_and_training/child_care_support_during_fas_training_courses.html

Thanks for the advice Paperclip.
Luckily I am out of the welfare trap and back at work but Springboard was and is a very useful option for those folks looking to retrain.
I never knew about the CETS option for childcare if retraining, it is not much help to those parents who are working though.
Indeed back @2007 I was working fulltime and had my son in a community creché, I had to pay full rate for childcare as I was working whereas other parents who were unemployed were given an @60% cheaper rate for their childcare.
It left me totally baffled, I was going to work trying to provide for my child and paying for the privilege.
Whereas many other parents were dropping their child to creché for a ''break'' and availing of a discounted rate to do it.
It's one of the main reasons I feel a drive needs to be made to ensure adequate supports for working parents(not just single ones) are put in place.