Activating Lone Parents: an evidence-based policy appraisal of the recent welfare-to-work reform in Britain
| Title | Activating Lone Parents: an evidence-based policy appraisal of the recent welfare-to-work reform in Britain |
| Author(s) | Tina Haux |
| Organisation | ISER at University of Essex |
| Date | August 2010 |
| No. of pages | 22 |
| Key words | lone parents; welfare-to-work; employment; unemployment; multiple disadvantage; work experience; childcare |
| Description | The recent welfare-to-work reform requires lone parents with older children to be available for work. This article examines the likely effect of this reform and the proposed extension with regards to the employment rate of lone parents. It is argued that it will not lead to the desired increase in the employment rate of lone parents as the target groups is too small and the levels of multiple disadvantages within the group too high. Indeed, ‘ability to work’ cannot be equated with the age of the youngest child but needs to take into account the characteristics of lone parents as well. |
| Select quotations | “…lowering the age of the youngest child to five and over would not bring in a different group of lone parents in terms of their likelihood of being able to find employment.” “However, when looking at the group of lone parents with older children more closely, two key aspects emerge: firstly, the group of lone parents with older children on Income Support is too small to make a substantial contribution to the employment target. In fact, it would require an almost complete activation of this group to meet the 70 per cent employment target. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the level of multiple disadvantage among this group suggests that a substantial proportion of lone parents have a high risk of not moving into employment.” “The level of multiple disadvantages among lone parents with older children exposes the assumption that the age of the youngest child can be equated with ability to work in the case of lone parents as one-dimensional. Moreover, it is not clear whether measures are in place to address the disadvantages faced by lone parents, e.g. the need for recent work experience (particularly, in the low-skilled end of the labour market) or childcare for children with impairments.” “Finally, given that there are substantial proportions of lone parents with older children who are unlikely to move into work in the near future, the question as to what is on offer for lone parents who can’t work is newly pertinent.” “…as age of child does not seem to be linked to ability to work as shown above, it can be hoped that the government will be taking forward the recommendation by Gregg (2008) to devise tools to profile lone parents according to their distance to the labour market as a way of better identifying lone parents who are able to get and keep a job.” |
| Link | http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/publications/working-papers/iser/2010-29.pdf |
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