Division over lone parent work reforms

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by Sarah Campbell Social policy correspondent, BBC News Dawn Harrison does not want her children to be "latchkey kids"Ministers are planning to force single parents to look for a job once their youngest child hits 12, or risk losing their benefits.

The changes in benefits are part of an ambitious programme of reforms planned by the government.

Their aim is to achieve an 80% employment rate which will involve getting hundreds of thousands of long-term jobless, disabled and lone parents back to work.

Incapacity Benefit will be replaced by a new Employment and Support Allowance, with claimants undergoing a more rigorous testing system to "assess what an individual can do – rather than what they cannot".

As stated in their recently-submitted Green Paper "for those who are capable of working, there will be no right to a life on benefits".

Dawn Harrison is a mother of two girls aged 12 and 13.

Dawn used to work as a care assistant but says she stopped five years ago because she could not find adequate childcare.

She will be in the first group of lone parents who will have to switch from Income Support to Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).

Benefit cut

In return for just over £60 per week she will have to seek work of more than 16 hours per week or risk a benefit cut of up to 40%.

This year it is the 100,000 lone parents with children aged 12 and over who will be affected but over the next two years the threshold age of the youngest child reduces.

By 2010, all those with children over seven - amounting to 280,000 lone parents - will have had their status changed to JSA.

The government argues this is largely about reducing child poverty.

According to their figures, a child of a lone parent who works part-time is three times less likely to be living in poverty than if they were living on benefits.

This increases to five times less likely, if the parent works full time. So why have their plans come up against resistance?

One problem appears to be timing. The economy is shrinking and unemployment rising and there are serious concerns that suitable jobs may simply not be available. I want to provide a good example for my daughter - and financially we're better off Stephen Grimsey

The chair of the government's Advisory Committee on Social Security, Sir Richard Tilt, has said: "The climate is changed. We just think it would be sensible to delay this until we see how deep the recession is going to be."

Sir Richard has also expressed concern that adequate affordable childcare may not be sufficiently available and that people may feel compelled to take jobs which are low paid and leave them worse off.

The Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell has emphasised that no lone parent will be forced to take unsuitable work and that the system will be flexible.

Job centres have special advisors on hand to help lone parents who may have been out of the market for years and parents will be given help to build their skills and confidence, produce a CV and fill out application forms.

They will also get opportunities to take part in work trials, advice on interview techniques and help finding suitable registered childcare.

But take Dawn's example.

She wants to work and has been trying to do so for months. She says she has applied for 30 jobs already with no success.

She says she will only take a job which fits around her daughters' school hours because she does not want her girls to be "...latchkey kids left to fend for themselves while I go out to work".

But she fears that as an official job seeker, there will only be so many times she can say no to what's on offer. Some parents are worried that much will hinge on their relationship with their personal advisor.

Pressing ahead

There are many people who support the idea that lone parents should not be exempt from being expected to work and, indeed, more than half of the UK's 1.8 million lone parents have a job.

Single parent Stephen Grimsey works two days a week to provide for his three-year-old daughter and clearly feels the benefits he gets are more than just financial.

"I want to provide a good example for my daughter, Abigail. I want her to know that if you want something, you go out and get it. And financially we're better off for it."

The government is pressing ahead with its plans for reform and has support from the Conservative party, which has said to rein back would risk making poverty worse.

However, despite reassuring words that they will be helped - rather than forced - to accept work, many lone parents are sceptical the change will be in their best interests.