Exploring the impacts of the UK government’s welfare reforms on lone parents moving into work

Abstract

This report explored the experiences of lone parents in a context of increasing benefit conditionality and welfare reform. Lone parents on out seek work as a condition of benefit receipt. Mandatory Work staff were introduced in 2001. By 2012 a lone parent, not in work, was only entitled to Income Support until their youngest child turned five years old (compared with 16 years old in 2008). At this stage, unless eligible for another out must transfer onto Jobseeker’s Allowance; they must therefore actively seek work, must prove that they are doing so, and can have their benefit removed if they fail to seek work or accept it when it is offered. The research aimed to understand the challenges and opportunities facing lone parents who wish to return to work, or are being compelled to do so because their youngest child has turned five. It sought to understand: the issues facing a lone parent seeking work; what it is like being a lone parent on Jobseeker’s Allowance; and how the expectations placed upon them as Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants relate to the realities of seeking, entering into and sustaining paid work as a lone parent. More broadly it aimed to capture the lived experiences of lone parents – in relation to employment and job this context of a tightening policy regime. The project took the form of a mixed social survey datasets to explore lone parents’ demographic characteristics, employment, income, housing, education and health, in the UK, Scotland, and specifically in Glasgow where possible. The qualitative element of the research consisted of seventeen individual interviews with lone parents, and a focus group with eight lone parent participants.‐of‐work benefits have been subject to increasing obligations to prepare for and‐focused Interviews with Jobcentre Plus‐of‐work benefit, lone parents wishing to receive state support‐seeking, income, childcare, access to social networks, transport, and health – in‐methods study. The quantitative element used large‐scale