Don’t cut our benefits – it’s unfair and ineffective – say single parents
July 10th, 2009 by Kate Bell Posted in Livelihoods
‘These reforms will be based on giving people more power over their lives’ wrote James Purnell in the forward to the Government White Paper that preceded the Welfare Reform Bill currently in Parliament. Welfare reforms are always presented by the Government as empowering. Getting people into paid work, we are told, will liberate them from poverty and from dependency on the state.
But in our new report single parents tell us that successive welfare reforms have left them feeling disempowered – by the welfare system itself, and by the continued obstacles placed in their way when they try to move into work.
The Government is planning to implement policies whereby single parents will see their benefits cut for failing to comply with a Jobcentre Plus decision about the steps they must take to prepare for paid work. The new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Yvette Cooper, announced some welcome changes to the Bill last week, including more protection for parents who have experienced domestic violence and a pilot of additional support for those in short hours jobs. But single parents still say there’s a big difference between the Government’s rhetoric and their own lives.
We asked our single parent members and website visitors to tell us what they thought about benefits, working life and the proposals set out in the Welfare Reform Bill. They told us that an increasingly stretched benefits system has a long way to go before it can claim to offer the “personalised service” promised. What’s more, they show that giving Jobcentre Plus advisers the power to cut single parents’ benefits is neither fair nor realistic. Their stories reveal that paid work does not always make financial sense and though most single parents aspire to find work, many who are working part-time are still poor.
Most of all we see that single parents are struggling with the difficulty of balancing caring responsibilities with working life. And that even with an increase in childcare over the past ten years, they talk about the problems they are having in finding affordable and appropriate childcare places for their children – especially during the school summer holidays, and when they are trying to fit childcare in with shift-work, temp work and anti-social hours.
Single parents want their families to be better off when they return to employment. Over twenty percent of children with a single parent working full-time remain poor. Single parents want to know that childcare is out there when they need it but over two thirds of Family Information Services say that parents report a lack of available childcare in their area. And, most importantly, they want to be allowed to make the choice about when and how to work, so they can juggle working life with the responsibility of caring for their children by themselves.
In short, this is a group that is as keen as any politician to see changes that will make work workable for them. But their needs and responsibilities as parents must be understood as part of the drive for them to find work.
As the Welfare Reform Bill moves through parliament in its current state, it fails to take into account the “real world” hurdles faced by too many single parents. There’s still time for politicians to take their concerns into account – we hope they’ll be listening.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oxfam GB.
9 Responses to “Don’t cut our benefits – it’s unfair and ineffective – say single parents”
By Lisa Spencer on Jul 10, 2009
Raising a family and working requires flexibilty. Top-down government solutions are anyhting but – the two are not compatible. More childcare that is affordable and benefits that aren’t cut in a way that means you are better off not working would help
By TakeCare on Jul 10, 2009
If we accept that the situation is worse now than it was November 2008, it makes even more sense to listen to the suggestions of the Social Security Advisory Committee. They published a report which covered the period Aug 2007 to July 2008.
Introducing the report, the Committee Chairman, Sir Richard Tilt, pointed to the Committee�s commentary on the Government�s ongoing welfare reform programme, its achievements, and the challenges posed by the economic downturn. Expressing the Committee�s concern about the impact of the adverse conditions upon both the Department�s customers and the agencies delivering benefits and services, HE SUGGESTED THAT IT MIGHT NOW BE APPROPIATE TO REIN BACK THE PACE OF THE WELFARE REFORM PROGRAMME.
http://www.ssac.org.uk/pdf/reports/21streport.pdf
By Christopher Wirkkala on Jul 13, 2009
Hi Ms. Bell,
I’m in the US and looking to learn more about the problems UK single parents are having with family management and child-rearing issues. I have a company I have started to provide for these families and it seems the UK has similar needs.
Any insight/input would help me. Please e-mail me at your leisure. Thank you very much.
sincerely,
Chris Wirkkala (in Seattle)
cwirkkala@hotmail.com
By gillian lofts on Jul 30, 2009
Our local jobcentre advisors push you to go for jobs that are blatantly unsuitable or too far to get to. Keep being told that once the changes are implemented (October in my case) I will not have ANY choice and will be expected to take whatever job is offered – regardless of suitability or hours or distance. If i refuse, i’ll lose benefit. Its scary
They seem to think after childcare is the answer to everything and it isn’t. Our local centre collects children from primary schools, but won’t collect 11 year olds from senior schools – even though the two are opposite each other.
Am really worried and its adding to health problems to be continually pressurised in this way.
By Helen Butt on Jul 31, 2009
I do work full time and financially I am better off. BUT I don’t have enough time for my little girl – maybe it’s not so bad at the moment because she’s still a toddler but I am concerned about not being around enough to parent her properly when she goes to school rather than nursery – especially as the only way I can really have time with her is to live in the inner city – and I don’ think she’s going to get all she needs from her education!
By Julia Foster on Aug 3, 2009
Would anyone question a womans decision to be a stay-at-home-Mom if she was supported by a partner?
Our current government seem to think that copying the US model of welfare for lone parents is the way forward – it is punitive system that will will store up a whole load of problems for our children in the future.
By Kate Handson on Aug 3, 2009
Could somebody, preferably an advisor from Gingerbread please answer this quesiton:
If the Decision Maker at DWP has the overall say regarding “Appropriate and Suitable Childcare” then what about the 1989 Children Act and the Welfare Checklist if “The Child” does not want to go where DWP say they must or parent/career receives a benefit sanction?
I would be very interested if somebody could reply to this as I feel this might be justifiable in case law.
Thank you.
By Kate Bell on Aug 3, 2009
Glad the post has sparked some debate…. and really interested to hear about people’s experiences on the ground. With regards to childcare, and who has the final say, we’ve yet to see much case law on how this will work in practice. For any single parents wanting advice please do call Gingerbread’s free and confidential helpline – 0800 018 5026. You can also download more information on the changes at http://www.gingerbread.org.uk.
By Christopher Wirkkala on Sep 29, 2009
To All Parents,
Please take my family needs survey ( http://www.CommunityOfDoctors.com/familyneedssurvey ).
I’m researching single family service needs for a class project.
Feel free to contact me via e-mail if you have additional questions (cwirkkala@hotmail.com).
Thank you!