Social Protection Minister, Joan Burton, is to propose a major change to the qualifying criteria for the lone parents’ allowance, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

At present a lone parent receives the payment until his or her child reaches the age of 18. The Sunday Times reports that officials at the Department of Social Protection are examining the possibility of reducing this to seven as a means of cutting the €1.1 billion One Family Payment (OFP) bill.

The Fianna Fáil/Greens coalition had started the process of lowering the maximum age from 18 to 14 by 2014, but it is believed that this process will be accelerated and a lower limit introduced.

Last week, Minister Burton said that many countries encouraged lone parents back to work or education when their child is settled in primary education.

“Social welfare should not trap people into welfare dependency,” she said.

The report added that the high levels of fraud connected with the payment are causing concern. Of the €345 million recovered by the Department for fraudluent activity the largest saving –  €101m – was made from reviews of OFP .

The past decade has also seen the bill for the payment double, from €450 million to more than €1 billion last year, with the number of recipients increasing from 74,000 to 92,000 over that period.

The proposed changes would bring Irish single parent welfare payments more into line with those of other countries.

The payment threshold in the UK is seven years, in Canada six, in Finland four. In the US, single parent payments are stopped when the child has reached three years of age.

Last year, then Minister for Social Welfare, Mary Hanafin, said that the situation whereby parents can obtain the Lone Parent Allowance until their child reaches 22 if the child is in full time education, was “not in the best interests of the recipient, their children or society,”

The Minister said that the lack of any requirement under the current system for lone parents to engage in employment, education or training was also unhelpful.

Minister Hanafin added that, despite improvements made to the one-parent family payment over the years, a large proportion of lone parents and their children were still experiencing poverty.

She said: “In general, the best route out of poverty is through employment. We recognise that work, particularly full-time work, may not be an option for parents of young children.

“However, we believe that supporting parents to participate in the labour market once their children have reached an appropriate age will improve both their own economic situation and the social well-being of themselves and their families.”

Proposals designed to prevent long-term dependence on welfare and promote financial independence had been developed by the Department for Social Welfare, she said, and these would include “an expectation of participation in education, training and employment”.