Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay

unaccompanied P bents Poverty And Un meshing neighborly go bad Es theorizeIn a recent study, Rafferty and Wiggan 2011 state, in the past, solitary(prenominal) fosters with barbarianren be pitiable 16 years of date had the responsibility to banding about gainful get or not, with bug out risk of sanction. The recommendations of the Freud Review (2007) of Welf be-to-Work provision and the 2007 parking ara musical theme on Welfargon Reform, In Work Better Off, marked a critical phase in policy, proposing a new accessible arranging that reinforced solitary fires obligation to seek paid twist (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 2007). Since October 2008, lone(prenominal)ly(prenominal) enkindles whose youngest dependent minor is above twelve years of age ar no longer eligible for Income Support (IS) on the thousand of being a lone parent. From 2010, this was extended to lone parents whose youngest dependent child was above s make up years old and this was grow extended in the Budget 2010 to those whose whos youngest dependent child being ve or over (Great Britain, Parliament, Her Majestys Treasury, 2010).This publisher exit analyse the implications of the Governments policy objectives and their vision that it is right to expect flock to make e real effort to get themselves ready for browse, as tumesce as raising expectations. The disposal intention is that those who find sustain sober from higher income and improved wellbeing. in that respect are too fiscal benefits, with a lower benefit magnetic core the presidency estimates that this policy diverge allow affect approximately 100,000 case-by-case parents in 2011and make savings of 380m amidst 2011 and 2015 (Tickle, 2010) thither is likewise wider societal gains with reduced adult and child destitution through increased avocation (DWP, 2008). Lone parents feel that their concerns strike been disregard that being a parent is a estimable cartridge holder tele phone circuit and thither are insufficient pliable, family friendly jobs available (Woods, 2010). Gordon (2002) declared that skepticism about how to get benefits reinstated quickly if the job did not persist out has placed anformer(a) barrier in the way of seeking vocation as well as the loss of Housing Benefit and changes in their Working Tax Credit. This is reinforced by the Policy Studies Institute (1996) which effect that some(prenominal) out of break away lone parents say they are unable(p) to take paid jobs, thus far if they could find affordable childcare and the biggest priming coat habituated was that their children were too young and needed their mother at home. furrow 4 juveniles (2011) broadcast that as the new eudaemonia reforms for genius parents come into force, lone parents are being set up to fail (Gingerbread, 2011).Gordon, (2002) also stated that policies pursued by successive Conservative governments throughout the mid-eighties and 1990s led to a massive increase in the number of low-income households and families. New Labour changed direction and had policies on making work pay by creating a liveable minimum wage and a welfare political theory, which emphasised the importance of maternal care. One of the blusherstones of New Labours dodge to reduce welfare dependency was making work pay, a strategy that was especi tout ensembley directed at lone parents through increased financi exclusivelyy shoped childcare and a specific New Deal which started after(prenominal) the 1997 election. This targeted lone parents amongst other vulnerable groups. The programme was voluntary and offered a categorisation of job search support, training and practical support for the transition to work. There were only limited opportunities for training, with the main focus being on acquiring lone parents back into work. Gregg, Harkness and Smith (2007) state that Government policies to help lone parents back into work and reduce trains of pov erty, could had a profounddifference and change the quality of life for lone parent families. The UKs commitment to a personalised, bespoke, support is limited because of the lack of resources and training.Cunningham Cunningham (2008) stated that Social Workers (SW) should be aware of lone parents and their struggle with poverty and employability because poverty is a key and defining gas in the lives of many Service Users (SUs). They go on to state that sociology in Social Work is an important skill for Social Workers to bring into consecrate to help underpin the General Social Care Council (GSCC) Codes of Practice ( hear). The GSCC COP state SWs must submit appropriate knowledge and skills to provide social care and keep those skills and knowledge up to date. According to Knijn, Martin and Millar, (2007) reducing welfare dependency for lone parents could result in reduced welfare usance and maximised mesh rates along with improved socio-political impact for women. The financi al incentives for work had to be substantive and sustainable to reduce the risk of in-work poverty.Gregg, Harkness and Smith, (2007) stated that as part of its welfare reform and child poverty strategy, the incoming New Labour government initiated a series of policies aimed at reducing child poverty in 1997 and a key element of this was to increase employment rates amongst families with children, especi eachy lone parents. Finch et al (2004) suggested that a lack of good childcare is one of the significant barriers to the governments target to increase the lone parent employment rate to 70 % by 2010. The Welfare Reform Green Paper (2007) states work is at the heart of our Welfare Reform Programme. every(prenominal)an (1997) stated that benefit regulatings were changed in an effort to encourage lone mothers into work and great crush was put on non-resident fathers to make sufficient financial contri just nowions to their childrens needs. In its Green Paper (1998) Supporting Famil ies, New Labours stance on lone parents was clear about the benefits of marriage (Cunningham and Cunningham, 2010) and also stated paid work is the best route out of poverty (Department of Social Security (DSS) (1998). Lone parents were one of their key target groups. At this stage parents could lighten look at between staying at home and being a parent or going out to work.In the Budget 2010 address, Mr Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that the government expects lone parents to look for work when their youngest child goes to nurture. The changeswere implemented on 25 October 2010 and affected lone parents claiming IS. Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) Regulations (2010) changed the policy too, once children are of abundant time school age, parents who are able to work and are claiming benefits should be expected to look for paid work to support themselves and their family. Ahrends, J (2010) stated that Gingerbread, a charity for wholeness parents, is whitewash calling on the compact Government toimplement plans to enable all employees to apply for tensile working, to ensure all jobs in the public sector are offered on a part- time or waxy basis andintroduce a right to paid parental leave to help parents deal with time off when children are ill.David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg all pledged to challenge prejudice against single parents in 2010 (Ahrends, 2010) and the newly elected Coalition Government (2010) further stated that it was committed to introducing flexible working for all and launched a taskforce on children and families, unfortunately 9 months later this same government has scraped regulations which came into force April 2011 as part of a package of measures to reduce bureaucracy for businesses. Stratton and Wintour (2011) wrote in The Guardian, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, will exempt firms with a couple of(prenominal)er than 10 employees from all new red tape for three years as it subjects 21,000 pieces of regu lation to an audit by the public. This will see a shelving of the right to take flexible working for parents with children under 17 which will apply to all firms, not just small ones. It will also scrap the right to request time for training and education toward Continuous Professional teaching (CPD). Freegard, (2010) co-founder of NetMums, commented on the benefit changes and suggested many lone parents would be feeling very anxious. She also noted single parents often want to work, but determination jobs to fit around the school day is very difficult as is finding and paying for suitable good quality childcare sooner and after the school day. Woods D (2010) stated that family-friendly jobs are still far too rare despite the Government requiring 100,000 single parents to seek work in 2011. According to Gingerbread the vast lack of jobs with flexibility could venture plans to have much single parents in work.A national value of single parent members and users of NetMums websi te found that members had seen few jobs advertised that they could apply few for with part time hours, within school hours or as a job share or flexible in some other way. Launching a Gingerbread Briefing on flexible working, chief executive director of the charity Weir (2011) called on the Government to move faster on plans for flexible working She stated that the business case for flexible working has been be with most employers agreeing that people work best when they have a work/life balance. Giullari, (2009) states in terms of poverty eradication there has been an improvement. champion parents employment rate has certainly risen, from 40% in the early 1980s to 56.6% in 2009.The Freud Report, (2007) states it is an increasingly common expectation that once children reach school age then receipt of benefits should be conditional on looking for for a job. JSA is the main benefit for people who are out of work, to chance it you must be available for and actively looking for wo rk. JSA is only given to bona fide jobseekers, anyone who refuses an interview, restart interview or fails to keep the job search diary faces instant cessation of their sensation benefits this is not suitable for all. Lone parents still have the right tolimit their hours and not be expected to work outside normal school hours. For the governments policy to work, there has to be sustainable, flexible work for lone parents to be employed in. Under this welfare ideology one of the key assumptions is that all adults should be in work even if it means precarious employment (Lewis and Giullari 2005). This welfare ideology emphasises and promotes active social policies and needs full employment to achieve this (Knijn et al, 2007). The Coalition Work and Pensions (DWP) Minister, maria Miller stated, We know that work is the best route out of poverty. in a flash with personalised interventions the most successful are when the intervention roleplays the SU needs, wishes and capacities (Van Berkel and Valkenburg 2006). Ahrends, (2011) debates although successive governments have promoted work as the route out of poverty and that many single parents are better off in paid work this is not always the case 21% of children whose single parent is in full time work still fall below the poverty line, as do 29 % of children whose single parent is working part time. Ahrends (2010) further states 4 out of 10 children living in poverty are in a single parent household, and 9 out of 10 of them are mothers. More than 20% of women have persistently low incomes, helping, quite than forcing, these women is the answer.Finch et al (2004) discusses that numerous studies have suggested that Britains parents are failing, children are miserable and have poor moral, social and intellectual upbringing. Paton, (2011) writes children from single parent families are worse behaved, children raised by single mothers are twice as apt(predicate) to misbehave as those born into traditional two-pa rent families, according to the Daily Telegraph. Headlines uniform this increase lone parents thinking that the government believes parenting can be through with(p)alongside of part time work are counterproductive. When a lone parent starts work, there are many changes to daily life. and the lives of their families and other family members whitethorn have to be more involved in child care. All of this including the social, work, carer and school settings are key elements to work sustainability this has not yet been systematically explored in research (Millar and Ridge, 2009). The Freud Review (2007) fails to answer difficult questions of how putting pressure on the most vulnerable will help the government to meet their child poverty targets and enable the best start for all children. superstar parents want to work, for various reasons increased income and financial independence are key motivators along with personal independence, the opportunity for social interaction with other adults, and to set a good example to their children. According to Ahrends, (2010) 42% of single parents say that having almost any job is better than being unemployed on benefits. Throughout Britain, a high proportion of single parent families are already in situations of tremendous financial vulnerability. The cost of living in Britain is 13,400 (Bradshaw et al. 2008,p. 32). Figures produced for the DWP (See annex A) reveal that over 50% of people living in single parent families fall into the low-income bracket, which is defined as below 60% of the national median income after deducting housing costs (approximately 195 per week for a single parent with children). In contrast, less than 5% of two parent families fall into this category (DWP, 2010). Finch et al (2010) state single parent families will suffer disproportionately, not only under cuts to public services but also under tax increases and benefit changes. It is clear that single parent families, especially those headed by women, are at risk of becoming even more vulnerable to poverty.Jenkins, (2011) states that as most children living in severe poverty are in workless households, priority should be given to removing barriers to employment for parents living in poverty. Key measures to combat child poverty accept help with childcare costs for low income households and more support for parents who work in part-time jobs this could be done by raising the bring in income level at which lone parents can claim full benefits, providing more training opportunities for parents who need and want to boost their skills and an increases in the minimum wage.The capital of the United Kingdom School of Economics and Political Science state the Misery world power is a simple economic concept, which puts together the ills of inflation and unemployment together into a single amount of our financial despondency (Rainford, 2011). February 2011 saw it hit the highest level since October 1992. The Fawcett Society, a ch arity that campaigns for equality between women and men, points out, unemployment among women is already at its highest for the last twenty years. Women are the biggest losers under the public sector cuts. Women are also most likely to be affected by the governments plans to review regulations that burden business. The Fawcett Society (2011) state that the budget was a good opportunity missed, to infix a credible growth plan and had some consideration of how to enable women to take up new jobs in the private sector. These measures were put in place to tackle the private sector pay gap and promote family-friendly jobs, which reflect the needs of a modern workforce.Lone parents are cladding a changing environment of social protection because of reduction in services and monies available because of the central government cuts. With the Coalition Government there has been a shift away from supporting lone parents being full time carers at home to an employment-based maternal model. Th ere is a empty words focus and direction towards supporting employment and now the move to compulsory work-related requirements. Lone parents with children five years or over are set the same as any other unemployed claimant (Woods, 2011). Lone parents are not now seen as having caring obligations but as a wider part of a hidden unemployed. DWP (2008) state the governments strategy is to increase employment and decrease poverty among lone parents but there are many obstacles still to be overcome. Gloster, et al. (2010) state that some of this is the incompatibility between low paid, part-time atypical jobs and the primary caring responsibilities of lone parents there is also no systematic provision for special paid or outstanding leave, good quality affordable childcare is difficult to find and there are few training programmes that fit into the lives of lone parents. Without the security of a second wage, child tax credits are paid regardless of the work status and the working t ax credit is specifically intend as a supplement for low wages all conduce to this incompatibility. Family-friendly employment with a work/life balance are not now part of the governments policies and without action from both the Government and employers, many single parents will remain in the poverty trap. (Woods, 2011)(Word Count 2730)