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Childrens' well-being is missing from Green Paper
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July 2008
21/07/08 Commenting today on the Welfare Reform Green Paper, Chief Executive of One Parent Families|Gingerbread Fiona Weir said:
"The good news is the proposal to let lone parents on benefit keep all the child maintenance they receive. But most of the proposed welfare reform changes will fail to lift lone parents and their children out of poverty. We are concerned that the emphasis on compulsion and sanctions is wrong, unnecessary and unworkable."
The Green Paper introduces 'work for dole' requirements in addition to existing plans to move lone parents off Income Support and onto Job Seekers Allowance, requiring them to seek work or face sanctions. It also introduces a degree of mandatory skills training. Conditionality is being introduced despite evidence that most lone parents want to work and to skill up and the rapid rise in lone parent employment from 45 per cent in 1997 to 56.6 per cent today. Some of the implications of the changes are:
Lone parents need constructive help to move into work, not more threats of losing their benefit. Rather than a punitive ‘work for dole' regime, more help is needed to help lone parents overcome the challenges of:- finding affordable and flexible childcare. At present, there is still only one childcare place available for every three children under 8;
- the lack of work at flexible hours. In a recent OPF|Gingerbread survey, 71 per cent of lone parents not in work cited not being able to find a job to fit in with childcare or school hours as a barrier to work;
- Finding work that pays. Twenty-three per cent of children living with a lone parent who works are still poor, and lone parents still face some of the worst financial incentives to work of any group;
- 'skilling up' for the work-place, given that one quarter of non-working lone parents have no qualifications
- Overcoming ill-health and disability, with a quarter of lone parent families including at least one child with a disability or long-standing illness.
In the drive to be seen as being tough on benefit claimants, the Government is in danger of losing sight of the reality of lone parents' lives and the tough job they face in parenting well whilst competing in the jobs market. They need support and encouragement, not threats of further impoverishment.
One Parent Families|Gingerbread has lobbied intensively for a full child maintenance disregard:
Ms Weir said: "We look forward to children in the poorest families receiving the full benefit of any child maintenance paid. This will encourage parents both to seek and to pay child maintenance. The change will make it a far simpler system for benefit administrators and will lift a further 30,000 children out of poverty."
Notes to Editors:
(1) The Government is phasing in new work-search obligations for non-working lone parents: From November 2008 lone parents on Income Support whose youngest child is aged 12 will be switched to Jobseeker's Allowance which places new obligations on them to look for work. From October 2009 lone parents whose youngest is 10 or over will be switched to JSA and from 2010 the change will apply to those with a youngest of seven.
One Parent Families|Gingerbread is the leading charity providing direct services to single parents and campaigning on their behalf. It runs a free advice service and Lone Parent Helpline, publishes a range of free information booklets on all aspects of one parent family life and works with private, voluntary and public sector partners to deliver employment projects for work-ready lone parents.
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