Researchers examined the labour market impact of a set of five government policies designed to help lone parents into work. The pilots increased the proportion of potentially eligible lone parents who moved into work: 1.4 percentage points more potentially eligible lone parents in the sample were in work after 24 months compared with the comparison group. The impact of the pilots was dominated by the 'in-work credit' scheme.
Source: Mike Brewer, James Browne, Haroon Chowdry and Claire Crawford, The Lone Parent Pilots After 24-36 Months: The final impact assessment of In-Work Credit, Work Search Premium, Extended Schools Childcare, Quarterly Work Focused Interviews and New Deal Plus for Lone Parents, Research Report 606, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2009-Dec
A report examined the experiences of the first lone parents to be required (from 2008) to sign on for jobseeker's allowance instead of claiming income support. It called for earlier and better support, clearer information about the process, and a recognition that lone parents formed a distinct 'client group' by virtue of their sole responsibility for children.
Source: Victoria Peacey, Signing On and Stepping Up? Single parents' experience of welfare reform, Gingerbread (020 7428 5400)
Links: Report | Gingerbread press release
Date: 2009-Oct
An article examined employment trajectories for lone mothers with a youngest child under 5. It set out a typology of trajectories, identifying the proportion of women broadly stable in work, those remaining at home, and those following unstable pathways between the two. It explored the factors associated with different pathways; whether individual and household characteristics, job characteristics, or changes in circumstances such as new health problems were most important; and differences in wage progression across groups of women following different pathways.
Source: Kitty Stewart, 'Employment and wage trajectories for mothers entering low-skilled work: evidence from the British Lone Parent Cohort', Social Policy and Administration, Volume 43 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Oct
Researchers evaluated a 'health check' pilot designed to make contact with lone parents who were claiming the childcare element of working tax credit, check to see that their details were correct, and make any amendments to their tax credit award if necessary.
Source: Claire McAlpine, Rachel Muscat, Andrew Hunter and Andrew Thomas, Qualitative Research on Tax Credits: Customers' experience and views of the health check pilot, Research Report 82, HM Revenue & Customs (020 7438 6420)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Aug
The government announced a trial, in selected areas from 2010, under which lone parents on income support who worked for less than 16 hours would be able to earn £50 per week before it had any impact on their benefit. It said that it would also table amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill exempting jobseeker's allowance claimants who were victims of domestic violence from the requirement to look for work for three months.
Source: Press release 2 July 2009, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jul
A report set out the views of lone parents on the government's proposal for sanctions against lone parents with children aged 3-7 who did not take part in work-related activity. It said that lone parents had been promised 'personalized support', but were instead experiencing difficulties in an increasingly stretched benefits system. Further powers for personal advisers to cut lone parents' benefits would undermine the relationship of trust between them. Benefits cuts caused hardship and stress, and were ineffective – sanctions did not help people to get jobs. For too many lone parents work was not a route out of poverty: 32 per cent of children with a lone parent working part time were poor, as well as 22 per cent of children with a lone parent working full time.
Source: 'There's Only One of Me': Single parents, welfare reform and the real world, Gingerbread (020 7428 5400)
Links: Report | Womensgrid report
Date: 2009-Jul
An article examined how social relationships, inside and outside the family, were central to the 'family-work project' of sustaining employment. It drew on data from an ongoing longitudinal qualitative study of lone mothers and their children, which had been following the families from the point that the mothers left income support and started working for at least 16 hours per week. The analysis started from the assumption that sustaining work over time was a process that actively involved the family as a whole and not just the individual lone mother.
Source: Jane Millar and Tess Ridge, 'Relationships of care: working lone mothers, their children and employment sustainability', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 38 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jan
An article examined the effect of reforms introduced in 1999 to help low-income families with children, especially lone parents, including in-work tax credits and welfare-to-work programmes. It considered employment dynamics, including hours adjustments, and a broader range of outcomes including partnership and indicators of well-being among lone mothers and their children.
Source: Paul Gregg, Susan Harkness and Sarah Smith, 'Welfare reform and lone parents in the UK', Economic Journal, Volume119 Issue 535
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Jan