A report examined the effects of progressively (since 2008) denying lone parents entitlement to income support solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. On average, lone parents had moved closer to the labour market. Immediately after leaving income support, lone parents were most likely to move on to jobseeker's allowance (55 per cent), while 12 per cent claimed employment and support allowance, and 24 per cent got a job. The work that lone parents had done since leaving income support was generally low-skilled work at around the national minimum wage: nearly all were working part time. Lone parents who had entered work or increased their hours were less likely to be in material deprivation and on low income: but this still applied to 39 per cent.
Source: Nick Coleman and Timothy Riley, Lone Parent Obligations: Following lone parents journeys from benefits to work, Research Report 818, Department for Work and Pensions
Date: 2012-Dec
An article compared the prevalence and characteristics of lone parent families in Europe, analyzed the poverty and deprivation risks of children, and evaluated the potential impact of social transfer income packages on child poverty reduction. Lower child poverty rates were found in countries with more generous social transfers, even after controlling for the country standard of living. A reverse pattern was observed for material deprivation: the negative effect of social transfer income washed out when national income per capita was controlled for, which itself had a negative and significant effect on material deprivation.
Source: Yekaterina Chzhen and Jonathan Bradshaw, 'Lone parents, poverty and policy in the European Union', Journal of European Social Policy, Volume 22 Number 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
A report said that the new universal credit scheme would help many – but by no means all – lone parents to escape poverty. But it was likely to leave most with incomes that were too modest to be able to afford a decent minimum standard of living. In many cases, increasing the number of hours worked would make a negligible difference to net household income, removing the incentive for them to progress and take on more work. Moreover, for some families, especially those with high housing or childcare costs, even working long hours would not remove the risk of poverty.
Source: Donald Hirsch, Struggling to Make Ends Meet: Single parents and income adequacy under universal credit, Gingerbread
Links: Report | Gingerbread press release | Labour Party press release | Inside Housing report | Nursery World report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Nov
A report said that many lone parents were being forced to take on junior jobs that offered more flexible hours and proximity to home. Lack of flexible jobs, and unaffordable and unavailable childcare, were still proving to be the biggest barriers to lone parents seeking work that matched their skills.
Source: The Only Way Is Up? The employment aspirations of single parents, Gingerbread
Links: Report | Summary | Gingerbread press release | People Management report
Date: 2012-Sep
A study examined the journeys of lone parents on jobseeker's allowance, focusing on support and training opportunities provided to facilitate learning.
Source: Tina Haux et al., A Longitudinal Qualitative Study of the Journeys of Single Parents on Job Seekers Allowance, Single Parent Action Network/University of the West of England
Links: Report
Date: 2012-May
A report highlighted the position of 124,000 lone parents with children aged 5-6, who from 21 May 2012 were moved on to jobseeker's allowance with only eight weeks' notice – pushing them into a labour market with few job opportunities, and even fewer family-friendly jobs, 17 months before more support for childcare costs in 'mini-jobs' became available under the new universal credit arrangements. The report called for lone parents with children aged 5-6 who took up further education courses to be treated as fulfilling work search obligations.
Source: It s Off to Work We Go? Moving from income support to jobseeker s allowance for single parents with a child aged five, Gingerbread
Links: Report | Gingerbread press release | DWP press release | 4Children press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-May
A study examined the experience of lone parents moving on to the Work Programme. Lone parents found the transfer stressful, due to uncertainty and lack of information. There was concern about childcare, and for parents with older children there was worry about what would happen to their children in the long summer holiday. There was poor organization of appointments, which could take place during inconvenient times for people with children.
Source: Laura Dewar, Is the Work Programme Working for Single Parents? An analysis of the experience of single parents moving onto the Work Programme, Single Parent Action Network
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined self-rated health, non-employment, and potential synergy effects between them, among lone and couple mothers aged 25-59 in Britain, Sweden, and Italy. Non-employment only marginally contributed to the excess risk of poor health among lone mothers. But there were synergy effects between lone motherhood and non-employment in all three countries, producing a higher risk of poor health than would be expected from a simple addition of these exposures.
Source: Sara Fritzell, Francesca Vannoni, Margaret Whitehead, Bo Burstrom, Giuseppe Costa, Stephen Clayton, and Johan Fritzell, 'Does non-employment contribute to the health disadvantage among lone mothers in Britain, Italy and Sweden? Synergy effects and the meaning of family policy', Health and Place, Volume 18 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined policy approaches to supporting lone-parent families since 1997. It considered whether recategorizing those lone parents not engaged with the labour market as 'unemployed' reopened old debates about who deserved financial support from the state. Some potential problems with the focus on employment were highlighted: in particular the specific challenges that lone parents might face when attempting to combine paid work with caring responsibilities.
Source: Laura Davies, 'Lone parents: unemployed or otherwise engaged?', People, Place & Policy, Volume 6 Issue 1
Links: Article
Date: 2012-Mar
A paper evaluated the 'in work credit', a payment made to lone parents (nationally from 2008) who had previously spent at least a year on benefits if they moved into work of 16 or more hours per week – with a maximum payment of 52 weeks. The credit was found to have increased flows off benefits and into work, and these positive effects did not diminish when recipients reached the 12-month time limit. Job retention by recipients was good, although this could not be attributed to the credit.
Source: Mike Brewer, James Browne, Haroon Chowdry, and Claire Crawford, The Impact of a Time-Limited, Targeted In-Work Benefit in the Medium-Term: An evaluation of in work credit, Working Paper 2012-04, Institute for Social and Economic Research (University of Essex)
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
An article examined the potential effect of requiring most lone parents with older children to be available for work on the employment rate of lone parents, and considered whether the age of the youngest child was a good indicator of 'ability to work'. The introduction of the requirement would not lead to the desired increase, as the target group was too small and the levels of multiple disadvantage within the group were too high. 'Ability to work' needed to be conceptualized more broadly if it were to mean 'ability to get a job'.
Source: Tina Haux, 'Activating lone parents: an evidence-based policy appraisal of welfare-to-work reform in Britain', Social Policy and Society, Volume 11 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan