The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has welcomed a decision by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that allows a single mother of two receive the One-Parent Family Payment.

The commission represented the woman in her request for a review of a decision to disallow her the payment.

IHREC said that the mother of two, who is from a sub-Saharan African country, arrived in Ireland in 2013. She applied for refugee status, and was granted permission to remain in the State in 2019.

The woman enrolled in a pre-nursing course, but later had to drop out due to a lack of funds, as she was unable to access financial support through the one-parent scheme. She recently obtained work part-time as a cleaner.

‘Habitual residence’

The decision to refuse her the payment was made on the grounds that she had failed to satisfy the habitual-residence condition, as her presence in the State was not in accordance with her permission to remain.

In this case – as the woman was not working at the time of her application for the payment – the decision relied on the permission-to-remain condition that “she makes every effort to gain employment, set up a business or pursue a profession, and not to be a burden on the State”.

In its submission, IHREC argued that the appeals officer “materially erred in fact” in finding that the conditions attached to the woman’s permission to remain prohibited her from accessing social welfare.

The Chief Appeals Officer maintained that it was lawful to consider compliance with permission-to-remain conditions when assessing the requirement for habitual residence.

New information

The officer went on, however, to overturn the refusal decision after a review of all the facts, and the new information submitted on the woman’s recent employment status.

The woman who brought the review welcomed the outcome, saying it would help her to move on with her life, and support her two daughters.

“I want to access further education, and I will be able to get financial support for this now that I am on the correct payment,” she said.

“The commission welcomes this positive outcome following our grant of legal assistance, which facilitates access to education and employment opportunities for this single mother,” said Sinéad Gibney (IHREC chief commissioner, pictured).