Welfare Reform leaves single parents in a one-sided deal

68,000 more join JSA rolls from today

26 October 2009

Welfare reforms starting today mean 68,000 more single parents will be forced to look for work or risk a benefit cut but new research from Gingerbread shows that Government is not providing the support that parents were promised.

Today’s reforms will see all single parents with a youngest child aged 10 or 11 switched from Income Support to the tougher Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) regime under which they must attend fortnightly jobcentre interviews and show they have applied for jobs between interviews. Parents will be switched over in phases.

Announcing in 2007 that parents of older children would be transferred to the JSA regime the Government said: “They will be expected to look for suitable work and, if necessary, acquire the skills they need to do so, in return for personalised help and support”(1)

Single parents with a youngest aged 12 were the first to be moved to the new system last year. But Gingerbread’s in-depth interviews with 34 of these parents – before and after their 2008 switch – reveal that ‘support’ is thin on the ground (summary of research findings attached to this email).

Many have not been offered the meetings with a New Deal adviser they are entitled to. Many simply feel demoralised by repeated job rejections, even more insecure financially, under intense pressure in a tight labour market - yet no better equipped to find work.
The charity is calling on Government to commit to its side of the bargain.

Chief Executive of the charity Fiona Weir said:

"Government promised single parents more support in return for tough work-search conditions but the back-up just isn’t there. Single parents are being hurried through a sign-on system which puts them under intense pressure yet doesn’t recognise the real- world constraints that make it hard for them to find and keep a job"

"The extra obligations are there but the support is woefully inadequate. Real, tailored help for single parent job-seekers must be built into the system from day one of a claim, otherwise it starts to look very much like a one-sided deal."

"From today thousands more single parents with older children will go through Jobcentre Plus doors and on to JSA. They need a system that recognises their parenting role and that builds rather than erodes their self-confidence and their skills for work."

The charity is calling on Government to ensure there is active and tailored support available to single parents from day one of a JSA claim. Parents’ right to regular one-to-one meetings with a specialist New Deal for Lone Parents Adviser must be upheld.

Single parent case studies are available through the Gingerbread press office.
Press contact: Jane Ahrends 0207428 5416 or 0788 1951138

Notes to Editors

1) DWP (2007) Ready for Work: Full employment in our generation

2) The current employment rate for all lone parents is 56.7%. Of those single parents who are not working and whose youngest child is aged 12-15, 62% have a health problem that has lasted for a year or more (compared to 27% of working parents of 12-15 year olds). (Data from the Labour Force Survey, April-June 2009, commissioned by Gingerbread)

3) Under the Government’s welfare reforms, in 2011 parents with children aged seven or over will have to seek work as a condition of benefit receipt. Until the reforms were implemented, single parents could remain on Income Support until their youngest reached 16 or was in full-time education.

4) Gingerbread’s report Signing on Stepping up? Single parents’ experience of moving on to Jobseeker’s Allowance involved interviews with 34 lone parents both before and after their move to JSA, between January and August 2009. This research took a qualitative approach to understanding the impact of JSA on families' lives. Gingerbread’s free Single Parent Helpline on 0808 802 0925 – which is free to single parents calling from all landlines and all major mobile networks - gives independent information and advice on all issues affecting single parents, including child maintenance, employment, welfare benefits and tax credits, housing and debt. The charity also runs return-to-work projects for single parents and publishes a wide rage of free publications on all the issues affecting one parent family life. It works closely with One Parent Families Scotland.

Copies of the report 'Signing on Stepping up? Single parents’ experience of moving on to JSA' are available here


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