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“There’s only one of me: single parents, welfare reform and the real world.”
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6 July 2009
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Embargoed until: 0.00 hours: Monday 6 July.
Contact: Miranda Yates tel: 07903 303855
For copies of the report email: Miranda.Yates@gingerbread.org.uk
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Don’t cut our benefits – it’s unfair and ineffective – say single parents
Today Gingerbread launches its new report, criticising the Government’s plans to cut the benefits of single parents who do not take part in “work related activity” to Jobcentre Plus deadlines.
Under proposals, in the Welfare Reform Bill, currently in Parliament, over-stretched Jobcentre Plus advisers* will be given the power to cut up to 40 per cent of single parents’ benefits. And this regime could effect up to 400,000 single parents with children as young as three-years-old.** Sanctions are a weapon the Government is increasingly willing to wield - 47,000 people on Jobseeker’s Allowance saw their benefits cut between 2003-4 - 15,280 more than in 2007-8 when 31,720 were sanctioned.
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Fiona Weir, Chief Executive of Gingerbread said: “The Welfare Reform Bill gets the balance wrong. On the one hand there is a concrete regime where single parents can get their benefits cut if they don’t do as they are told by a Jobcentre Plus Adviser. On the other hand, the Government’s promise of a package of “personalised” support remains vague.
“Last week’s amendments to the welfare reform bill *** indicate that Yvette Cooper understands that this policy needs to be made to work in the real world. The scales are too often weighted against single parents who need help and not hindrance to combine paid work with bringing up children.”
There’s only one of me draws on interviews with 200 single parents – professionals, part-time workers and stay-at-home parents. It reveals the gulf between the Government’s rhetoric on “empowerment” via reform and the reality of life as a single parent managing the difficult balance of work and parenting alone. The report covers:
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- How benefits cuts are proven to have little effect on job-hunting behaviour and are likely to lead single parents into debt and hardship.
- How the Government’s promise of a specially tailored package of “personalised” support, is mistrusted by single parents who share experiences of shoddy treatment at Jobcentre Plus, mistakes and wrong benefits payments, which have led to debt and hardship.
- How “work can be unworkable” for the many single parents who find a shortage of suitable and affordable childcare – especially during the school summer holidays.
- Why work doesn’t always pay for many single parents in low-paid jobs, where topping up childcare fees; paying for school dinners; and travelling to work can wipe out the financial advantages of having a job.
- How single parents’ ambitions for a stable career are blighted by strict rules, which mean their options to train while on Job seekers’ Allowance are severely limited, often preventing them from taking up courses beyond Level 2.
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- Ends -
Notes to Editors
* Jobcentre Plus Advisers’ workload is increasing in the recession. Advisers who were seeing 40 people a week are now seeing 70.
** This is the estimate from the Government’s Impact Assessment of the Welfare Reform Bill.
*** “There’s only one of me,” is released following the Government’s decision (2 July) to allow single parents who have experienced domestic violence, to three months reprieve from job seeking to repair their damaged lives. This is one of Gingerbread’s major campaign demands and is a crucial step in protecting some of the most vulnerable single parents.
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