Cutting Benefits Of Single Parents Will Increase Number Of Kids In Poverty

Slashing benefits of single parents who don't look for work will increase child poverty and family hardship, a report has warned.

Gingerbread, the charity that represents lone parents, wants ministers to abandon the "big stick" of benefit sanctions proposed in the Welfare Reform Bill.















Interviewing 200 single parents it found most were keen to work but felt hampered by lack of support from Government and employers.

Gingerbread chief executive Fiona Weir said: "Single parents are branded bad mothers if they are not there for their children and derided as benefits scroungers if they stay home - they feel caught in a trap."

The Government says getting single parents to work is the best route out of poverty.

But Gingerbread claims welfare reforms will make it tougher for single parents to juggle work with raising a family.

There are 1.9 million single parents in the UK who care for about three million children. Until last year, those with children aged 16 or younger could claim Income Support and weren't forced to seek work.

They had to attend "Work Focused Interviews" at the Jobcentre twice a year to discuss returning to work.

Since then, the Government has introduced a major change, gradually moving single parents with children aged seven and over from Income Support on to Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).

To claim JSA they must attend Jobcentre Plus every two weeks and show they are actively looking for work. Claimants who fail to meet these conditions or who turn down a job without "good cause" can have their benefits cut by up to 40%.

The Bill aims to make parents of children as young as three take part in "work-related activity".

Many single parents are already being squeezed by the recession.

Calls to Gingerbread's helpline suggest more lone parents are seeing maintenance payments slashed as ex-partners lose their jobs.

Gingerbread's research also found many parents were keen to work but said it often didn't pay. "Childcare, travel and school meal costs can wipe out the benefits of many lowpaid, part-time jobs and leave parents out of pocket," says Weir.

Gingerbread wants employers to be more flexible to help single parents juggle work and family responsibilities and says the state could lead by example by offering more flexitime, parttime work and job sharing.

It believes single parents should have childcare costs covered through working tax credits and get their youngsters school meals free.

The DWP stressed the Government was commited to ensuring work pays for lone parents. Work & Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced a trial that from next year will mean they can earn £50 a week without losing benefits. And the bill has been amended so victims of domestic violence will not have to look for work for three months.

"We need to help families out of poverty by helping parents work, and we will always do so in a way that also supports family life," said Cooper. Here we speak to three single mums facing the challenges...

For expert advice call Gingerbread's free helpline on 0800 018 5026.

The full-time mum

Mother-of-two Jaqueline Carroll says she feels "stuck in a rut" on benefits.

"I want to work," the 33-year-old from Liverpool says. "I think it's terrible that the Government is threatening to take money off single parents instead of help them.

"Some single parents advisers are good - but some ask why you don't apply for jobs starting from 8.30am. When you say you can't because you have to drop your child off at school, they go 'oh you're just being negative'."

Jacqueline was shocked when she went for a supermarket job. "The first thing they said was 'if any of you want cushy hours, forget it. The good hours are for people already here'."

The part-time worker

Wendi New, 40, had to give up her job teaching young offenders in prison when her marriage broke up 12 months ago.

She says staff at her local Jobcentre tried to push her to work at a supermarket, despite her qualifications. Now she has a job teaching children with behavioural problems closer to her home in Lowestoft, Suffolk. She works 18 hours a week and brings home about £900 a month.

"I'd have to work 50 hours a week in a supermarket to earn that. I couldn't do it and look after Hollie. Even now if Hollie's ill I have to take unpaid leave and then I'm worse off than I'd be on benefits."

The full-time worker

Charity worker Sarah Davidge from Bristol wants to work to provide a "positive role model" for her daughters Meg and Beth.

"You have two jobs - work and parenting. But you don't feel as if you do either to the best of your ability. I can't stay late at work and I don't feel able to devote as much time as I'd like going through homework with them."

Sarah admits she is luckier than many lone parents - earning about £25,000 for a 35-hour week, and her employer is flexible about hours.

"But a lot of companies aren't so flexible. The Government should encourage choice, not try to force people to take the first job going."

David Cameron Denies 'War' With Single Parents Over Tax Breaks

David Cameron denied being "at war" with single parents today as he faced questions over planned tax breaks for married couples.









The Tory leader was accused of "discrimination" as he delivered a speech to members of lone parent charity Gingerbread.

Mr Cameron insisted the Government could not remain "neutral" on the issue of stable family units, and had to send a "long-term signal".

"My view is that there is an importance of trying to say that commitment and relationships and marriage are good institutions. They are good things," he said. "We shouldn't be completely neutral about them as a society.

"I think the tax system and the benefits system as well as helping people in the here and now as it should, also does need to think about what other long-term signals that we are sending out as a society.

"We should be sending long-term signals that are about commitment and the things that encourage commitment. It doesn't disadvantage other people, it's just saying that this is a good institution that society should recognise in such a way."

However, Mr Cameron also stressed that a Conservative Government would not ignore the difficulties single parents faced.

"Lone parents will not be on their own under a Conservative Government," he said. "There is not and never will be a war on single parents."

Apart from defending his party's proposals for tax allowances to be transferable between married couples, Mr Cameron warned that society was ignoring the role of extended families.

He said houses and flats were often being built too small for people to enjoy a family meal, or for grandparents to stay if necessary.

There had been reports that Mr Cameron's aides requested that media access to the event be restricted for fear that he would get a rough ride.

After his speech, one woman single parent demanded: "You talk about tax and that you are looking at providing tax cuts for married couples.

"Do you not think that is discrimination against someone who pays their tax bill every month, and someone who is going to find that my friend down the road who has managed to find Mr Right gets away with paying less tax than I do, just because I am raising my children by myself?

"Also don't you think that's perpetuating the stereotype that actually a married couple is better than a single family?"

Another woman was greeted with applause when she warned that politicians were reinforcing false stereotypes about single parent families.

"What is the Conservative Party going to do to help organisations like Gingerbread to help smash down the images and stereotypes that we have of lone parents?"

Mr Cameron replied: "I think we all have a role in trying to make sure that we portray things in a more reasonable way and a less black and white way."

Gingerbread chief executive Fiona Weir said: "While we welcome his strong message about stigmatising, we would like to see them reflect that through policies.

"He risks making single parents feel like second-class families."

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms accused the Tories of being in an "utter mess" over marriage tax breaks.

"He (Mr Cameron) says he's deadly serious about marriage and intends to spend billions on a tax giveaway to wealthier married couples.

"Then he tries to deny to an organisation of single mums that he intends in any way to discriminate against them.

"The truth is, his marriage tax allowance is unfair and unfunded - it would cost £5 billion and give 13 times as much to those at the top than those at the bottom."

David Cameron Criticised After Attacking 'Runaway Dads'

David Cameron has been accused of "ripping away" support from single parents, just hours after making a stinging attack on absent fathers.










The prime minister said "runaway dads" should be "stigmatised" in the same way as drink-drivers.

But charity Gingerbread said government proposals to charge those needing state help to obtain child maintenance would make life harder for lone parents.

Ministers said they wanted to encourage parents to settle their own affairs.
'Beyond the pale'

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph to mark Father's Day, the prime minister said fathers who failed to "financially and emotionally" support their children must face consequences.

"It's high time runaway dads were stigmatised and the full force of shame was heaped upon them," he said.

"They should be looked at like drink-drivers, people who are beyond the pale.
Continue reading the main story

"His government is making it much easier for deadbeat dads to run from their responsibilities” Quoted Yvette Cooper Shadow home secretary.

"They need the message rammed home to them, from every part of our culture, that what they're doing is wrong; that leaving single mothers, who do a heroic job against all odds, to fend for themselves simply isn't acceptable."

But Fiona Weir, from Gingerbread - which campaigns on behalf of single parents - criticised the prime minister.

"David Cameron is right that single mums - and indeed single dads - do a heroic job, but those same parents are about to have government support ripped away from them if they need help securing child maintenance payments from their child's other parent," she said.

"If the prime minister really wants to support heroic single parents, he must withdraw these damaging proposals which would limit access to the CSA [Child Support Agency]."

Since 2008 - when the much-maligned CSA was effectively axed - the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) has collected money from non-resident parents.

But earlier this year, the government said it wanted to encourage separating couples to organise their own payments and was proposing to charge those who did not for accessing the services of the CMEC.

They would be required to pay an upfront fee of £100 (or £50 if they claim benefits), plus an ongoing charge of between 7% and 12% of the money paid.
'Lack of understanding'

For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Cameron's words were "hollow".

"His government is making it much easier for deadbeat dads to run from their responsibilities by charging mums to use the Child Support Agency," she said.

Erin Pizzey: "There is a vast mass of women equally as feckless as the men"

Mr Cameron also said he was determined to introduce tax breaks for married couples - despite Liberal Democrat opposition to the idea.

But Ms Cooper said such a policy would "reward runaway dads who remarry".

Erin Pizzey, the founder of the first UK's women's refuge, said Mr Cameron was displaying a lack of understanding about the reality of family break-ups.

"There are a lot of reasons why [fathers are] not with their children... not least that women won't let them," she said.

Ms Pizzey said it was wrong to single out men, adding: "There is a vast mass of women who are equally as feckless as the men and we never talk about them."

Bob Greig, from the single parenting website Only Dads, agreed that the prime minister's argument was "too simplistic".

"There are many cultural, employment, financial, [and] legal issues as well which prevent dads from having a full-on relationship with their children post-separation and divorce," he told the BBC.

"Why that isn't recognised in his article in the Telegraph I just don't know."

The Camerons have three children, Nancy, Arthur and Florence - who was born last August.

Their first child, Ivan, who was born profoundly disabled and needed 24-hour care, died in February 2009.