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Submission to the work and pensions select committee's enquiry into child poverty
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September 2007 The best start in life? Alleviating deprivation, improving social mobility and eradicating child poverty.
Download the full submission at the bottom of this page.
Summary - Half of children living with a lone parent are poor. But an association between lone parenthood and child poverty is by no means inevitable. Other countries combine similar rates of lone parenthood to that of the UK with very much lower rates of child poverty.
- The Government's pledge to end child poverty, and to halve it by 2010 is vital to one parent families. But a renewed commitment is now needed, and investment vital.
- Employment provides a good route out of poverty for lone parents. But it is not a guaranteed one, and 23 per cent of working lone parents remain poor.
- While we welcome the desire to support more lone parents into employment, the suggestion in the Green Paper that lone parents should move onto the Jobseeker's Allowance regime is likely to be counterproductive. A more constructive approach would provide more flexible and tailored support, rather than relying on sanctions.
- Government also needs to do more to make work pay. One potential area for reform is to improve the incentives for lone parents to work in jobs of less than 16 hours a week. In work benefits also need to be uprated with earnings if their value is not to be eroded.
- Flexible working will be key to helping more parents into work. Government should extend the right to request flexible working to all parents, and ensure that it's new local employment partnerships open up more opportunities to work at child friendly hours.
- Childcare provision has significantly improved. But the promise of universal affordable childcare has not yet been achieved.
- Increasing the child maintenance disregard, and bringing the date of this increase forward to 2008 represents a cost effective means of tackling child poverty.
- Government must commit the £4bn estimated by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as necessary to meet the 2010 target. We would prefer to see this balanced between investment in universal Child Benefit and the more targeted tax credit system.
- We do not believe that the tax credit system at present favours lone parents. We also note that investing money in additional cash for couple parents is not a cost effective way of meeting child poverty targets.
- Children live in families and increases in adult means tested benefits should also form a part of the strategy to tackle child poverty.
- Lone parents are disproportionately likely to be caring for a disabled child, and we echo the calls of the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign for more investment in these families.
- The Social Fund should play a part in efforts to tackle child poverty, through supporting families to purchase 'lump sum' items and encouraging financial inclusion.
- A start has been made to tackling the entrenched disadvantage faced by children in one parent families. But there is still much further to go.
Download the full submission below.
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