Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: The UK has, until relatively recently, been one of the few OECD countries which did not impose work-related requirements on single parents (Finn and Gloster, 2010).Currently, however, the relatively low employment rate and high poverty risk for the UK's 2 million single parents (ONS, 2012) are on the political agenda.Recent policy changes have increased work-seeking requirements for single parents in attempts to encourage and facilitate their labour market participation.In 2008, the previous New Labour government introduced changes requiring single parents with older children to look for work.Initially, the age of the youngest child was set at 12, gradually reducing to 10, and then seven years of age.These changes resulted in 300,000 single parents being transferred from Income Support (IS) to Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) (Coleman and Lanceley, 2011).In May 2012, the current coalition government reduced the age of the youngest child to five years, a move which will see an additional 125,000 single parents transferred to JSA (DWP, 2012).Currently, therefore, single parents who are not in paid employment and whose only or youngest child is aged five are no longer entitled to claim IS. 2 Instead, they need to make a new claim for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) 3 or an alternative benefit, if appropriate, such as Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).The two reviews which follow both explore the impact of these recent policy changes for single parents.Philippa Newis, from the UK non-governmental organisation Gingerbread, reflects on the impact of the recent changes in eligibility for IS on single parents whose youngest child is aged five and presents emerging trends in the employment patterns of single parents since 2008.In the second article, Tina Haux and her colleagues from another UK non-governmental organisation, the Single Parent Action Network, and the University of the West of England, in Bristol, identify a number of key themes from their longitudinal study exploring the journeys of single parents on JSA to paid work or other benefits. Notes1 Based on material from both the articles that follow this introductory piece: 'It's off to work we go?Out-of-office benefits for single parents with a child aged five' by Philippa Newis and 'A longitudinal qualitative study of the journeys of single parents on Jobseeker's Allowance' by Tina Haux and colleagues.
Author: Jacqueline Davidson
Institution: University of York
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2326965807