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New premium payment welcome but extra hassle won't help
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24/01/06 Commenting on today's Welfare Reform Green Paper proposals, One Parent Families welcomes the extra help for lone parents who are ready and want to work, especially the £20 bonus for work-related activity. But it warns that increased requirements on non-working lone parents must be backed with increased investment in support, training and childcare.
One Parent Families Chief Executive Chris Pond said:
"While we welcome the six-month premium payment for lone parents who are taking steps towards employment, there's a danger of leading them up the garden path unless there is increased investment in the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP) which is withering on the vine as a result of underfunding.
"Extra work-focused interviews could put undue pressure on both lone parents and Job Centre Plus staff without yielding any tangible benefit. After a promising start at the NDLP, JobCentre Plus staff are now struggling to meet their targets for enabling lone parents to move into employment so unless there is new funding for the scheme, it is hard to see how advisers will be in a position to offer 'something for something' to those lone parents attending the proposed additional work-focused interviews
"Lone parents trust the New Deal because it is voluntary and the Government could undermine this if it appears to be replacing the offer of help with the threat of compulsion. An apparent threat that they will be forced into work when they are not ready to do so could discourage many from coming forward for advice about the possibilities. So it's very important that the message goes out to lone parents that this is about helping them into work, not forcing them into work".
"The Government's ambitious 70% lone parent employment target cannot be reached simply by increasing the requirements on lone parents. Most lone parents want to work, but committing adequate funding to the NDLP, to childcare and to training opportunities would achieve far more than compulsory requirements on claimants."
Notes To Editors.
Welfare Reform proposals for Lone Parents include: - piloting a new Work Related Activity Premium for Lone Parents on IS whose youngest child is aged at least 11 (and consulting on a younger age)
- increasing the frequency of Work Focused Interviews from once a year (now) to quarterly for those with a youngest child aged at least 11 to support work related activity
- increasing the frequency of Work Focused Interviews for all lone parents who have been on benefit for at least a year (and who are not already required to have them more frequently) to every 6 months from annually now
- piloting additional Work Focused Interviews in the first year of a claim to Income Support
- working with employers to develop work taster programmes for lone parents;
- exploring new ways of increasing the support that Jobcentre Plus can give to lone parents who are moving into, or who are already in work
Further information from Jane Ahrends on 0207 428 5416 or 0788 1951138.
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