Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay Essays

Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay Essays Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay Essay Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay Essay In a recent survey, Rafferty and Wiggan 2011 province, in the yesteryear, lone parents with kids below 16 old ages of age had the right to seek paid work or non, without hazard of countenance. The recommendations of the Freud Review ( 2007 ) of Welfare-to-Work proviso and the 2007 Green Paper on Welfare Reform, In Work Better Off, marked a critical stage in policy, suggesting a new societal understanding that reinforced lone parents duty to seek paid work ( Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) , 2007 ) . Since October 2008, lone parents whose youngest dependent kid is above 12 old ages of age are no longer eligible for Income Support ( IS ) on the evidences of being a lone parent. From 2010, this was extended to lone parents whose youngest dependent kid was above seven old ages old and this was further extended in the Budget 2010 to those whose who s youngest dependent kid being i ¬?ve or over ( Great Britain, Parliament, Her Majesty s Treasury, 2010 ) . This paper will analyze the deductions of the Government s policy aims and their vision that it is right to anticipate people to do every attempt to acquire themselves ready for work, every bit good as raising outlooks. The authorities purpose is that those who find work benefit from higher income and improved well-being. There are besides financial benefits, with a lower benefit burden the authorities estimates that this policy alteration will impact about 100,000 individual parents in 2011and make nest eggs of ?380m between 2011 and 2015 ( Tickle, 2010 ) there is besides broad societal additions with decreased grownup and kid poorness through increased employment ( DWP, 2008 ) . Lone parents feel that their concerns have been disregarded ; that being a parent is a full clip occupation and there are deficient flexible, family friendly occupations available ( Woods, 2010 ) . Gordon ( 2002 ) stated that uncertainness about how to acquire benefits reinstated rapidly if the occupation did non work out has placed another barrier in the manner of seeking employment every bit good as the loss of Housing Benefit and alterations in their Working Tax Credit. This is reinforced by the Policy Studies Institute ( 1996 ) which found that many out of work lone parents say they are unable to take paid occupations, even if they could happen low-cost child care and the biggest ground given was that their kids were excessively immature and needed their female parent at place. Channel 4 News ( 2011 ) broadcast that as the new public assistance reforms for individual parents come into force, lone parents are being set up to neglect ( Gingerbread, 2011 ) . Gordon, ( 2002 ) besides stated that policies pursued by consecutive Conservative authoritiess throughout the 1980s and 1990s led to a monolithic addition in the figure of low-income families and households. New Labour changed way and had policies on doing work wage by making a livable minimal pay and a public assistance political orientation, which emphasised the importance of maternal attention. One of the anchors of New Labour s scheme to cut down public assistance dependence was making work wage , a scheme that was particularly directed at lone parents through increased financially supported child care and a specific New Deal which started after the 1997 election. This targeted lone parents amongst other vulnerable groups. The programme was voluntary and offered a mixture of occupation hunt support, preparation and practical support for the passage to work. There were merely limited chances for preparation, with the chief focal point being on acquiring lone parents back into wo rk. Gregg, Harkness and Smith ( 2007 ) province that Government policies to assist lone parents back into work and cut down degrees of poorness, could had a profoundA difference and alter the quality of life for solitary parent households. The UKs committedness to a personalised, bespoke, support is limited because of the deficiency of resources and preparation. Cunningham A ; Cunningham ( 2008 ) stated that Social Workers ( SW ) should be cognizant of lone parents and their battle with poorness and employability because poorness is a cardinal and defining characteristic in the lives of many Service Users ( SUs ) . They go on to province that sociology in Social Work is an of import accomplishment for Social Workers to convey into pattern to assist underpin the General Social Care Council ( GSCC ) Codes of Practice ( COP ) . The GSCC COP province SW s must hold appropriate cognition and accomplishments to supply societal attention and maintain those accomplishments and knowledge up to day of the month. Harmonizing to Knijn, Martin and Millar, ( 2007 ) cut downing public assistance dependence for lone parents could ensue in decreased public assistance outgo and maximised employment rates along with improved socio-political impact for adult females. The fiscal inducements for work had to be substantial and sustainable to cut down the hazard o f in-work poorness. Gregg, Harkness and Smith, ( 2007 ) stated that as portion of its public assistance reform and kid poorness scheme, the incoming New Labour authorities initiated a series of policies aimed at cut downing child poorness in 1997 and a cardinal component of this was to increase employment rates amongst households with kids, particularly solitary parents. Finch et Al ( 2004 ) suggested that a deficiency of good child care is one of the important barriers to the authoritiess target to increase the solitary parent employment rate to 70 % by 2010. The Welfare Reform Green Paper ( 2007 ) provinces work is at the bosom of our Welfare Reform Programme . Allan ( 1997 ) stated that benefit ordinances were changed in an attempt to promote lone female parents into work and greater force per unit area was put on non-resident male parents to do sufficient fiscal parts to their kids s demands. In its Green Paper ( 1998 ) Supporting Families, New Labour s stance on lone parents was clear about the be nefits of matrimony ( Cunningham and Cunningham, 2010 ) and besides stated paid work is the best path out of poorness ( Department of Social Security ( DSS ) ( 1998 ) . Lone parents were one of their cardinal mark groups. At this phase parents could still take between remaining at place and being a parent or traveling out to work. In the Budget 2010 reference, Mr Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that the authorities expects lone parents to look for work when their youngest kid goes to school. The changesA were implemented on 25 October 2010 and affected lone parents claiming IS.A Job Seekers Allowance ( JSA ) Regulations ( 2010 ) changed the policy excessively, one time kids are of full clip school age, parents who are able to work and are claiming benefits should be expected to look for paid work to back up themselves and their household. Ahrends, J ( 2010 ) stated that Gingerbread, a charity for individual parents, is still naming on the Coalition Government toA implement programs to enable all employees to use for flexible working, to guarantee all occupations in the populace sector are offered on a part- clip or flexible footing andA introduce a right to paid parental leave to assist parents cover with clip off when kids are sick. David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg wholly pledged to dispute bias against individual parents in 2010 ( Ahrends, 2010 ) and the freshly elected Coalition Government ( 2010 ) further stated that it was committed to presenting flexible working for all and launched a taskforce on kids and households, unluckily 9 months subsequently this same authorities has scraped ordinances which came into force April 2011 as portion of a bundle of steps to cut down bureaucratism for concerns. Stratton and Wintour ( 2011 ) wrote in The Guardian, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, will relieve houses with fewer than 10 employees from all new ruddy tape for three old ages as it subjects 21,000 pieces of ordinance to an audit by the populace. This will see a shelving of the right to bespeak flexible working for parents with kids under 17 which will use to all houses, non merely little 1s. It will besides trash the right to bespeak clip for preparation and instruction toward Continuous Professi onal Development ( CPD ) . Freegard, ( 2010 ) co-founder of NetMums, commented on the benefit alterations and suggested many lone parents would be experiencing really dying. She besides noted individual parents frequently want to work, but happening occupations to suit around the school twenty-four hours is really hard ; as is happening and paying for suited good quality child care before and after the school twenty-four hours. Woods D ( 2010 ) stated that family-friendly occupations are still far excessively rare despite the Government necessitating 100,000 individual parents to seek work in 2011. Harmonizing to Gingerbread the huge deficiency of occupations with flexibleness could endanger programs to hold more individual parents in work. A national study of individual parent members and users of NetMums web site found that members had seen few occupations advertised that they could use few for with portion clip hours, within school hours or as a occupation portion or flexible in some other manner. Establishing a Gingerbread Briefing on flexible working, main executive of the charity Weir ( 2011 ) called on the Government to travel faster on programs for flexible working: She stated that the concern instance for flexible working has been proven with most employers holding that people work best when they have a work/life balance. Giullari, ( 2009 ) provinces in footings of poorness obliteration at that place has been an betterment. Single parents employment rate has surely risen, from 40 % in the early 1980s to 56.6 % in 2009. The Freud Report, ( 2007 ) states it is an progressively common outlook that one time kids reach school age so reception of benefits should be conditional on looking for a occupation. JSA is the chief benefit for people who are out of work, to have it you must be available for and actively looking for work. JSA is merely given to bona fide jobseekers, anyone who refuses an interview, re-start interview or fails to maintain the occupation hunt diary faces instant surcease of their esthesis benefits ; this is non suited for all. Lone parents still have the right toA limit their hours and non be expected to work outside normal school hours. For the authoritiess policy to work, there has to be sustainable, flexible work for lone parents to be employed in. Under this public assistance ideology one of the cardinal premises is that all grownups should be in work even if it means unstable employment ( Lewis and Giullari 2005 ) . This public assistance political orientation accents and promo tes active societal policies and needs full employment to accomplish this ( Knijn et al, 2007 ) . The Coalition Work and Pensions ( DWP ) Minister, Maria Miller stated, We know that work is the best path out of poorness . Now with individualized intercessions the most successful are when the intercession meets the SU demands, wants and capacities ( Van Berkel and Valkenburg 2006 ) . Ahrends, ( 2011 ) debates although consecutive authoritiess have promoted work as the path out of poorness and that many individual parents are better off in paid work this is non ever the instance: 21 % of kids whose individual parent is in full clip work still fall below the poorness line, as do 29 % of kids whose individual parent is working portion clip. Ahrends ( 2010 ) further provinces 4 out of 10 kids populating in poorness are in a individual parent family, and 9 out of 10 of them are female parents. More than 20 % of adult females have persistently low incomes, assisting, instead than coerci ng, these adult females is the reply. Finch et Al ( 2004 ) discusses that legion surveies have suggested that Britain s parents are neglecting, kids are suffering and have hapless moral, societal and rational upbringing. Paton, ( 2011 ) writes kids from individual parent households are worse behaved , kids raised by individual female parents are twice every bit likely to misconduct as those born into traditional two-parent households, harmonizing to the Daily Telegraph. Headlines like this addition lone parents believing that the authorities believes rearing can be doneA alongside of portion clip work are counterproductive. When a lone parent starts work, there are many alterations to day-to-day life. and the lives of their households and other household members may hold to be more involved in kid attention. All of this including the societal, work, carer and school scenes are cardinal elements to work sustainability ; this has non yet been consistently explored in research ( Millar and Ridge, 2009 ) . The Freud Review ( 2007 ) fails to reply hard inquiries of how seting force per unit area on the most vulnerable will assist the authorities to run into their kid poorness marks and enable the best start for all kids. Single parents want to work, for assorted grounds ; increased income and fiscal independency are cardinal incentives along with personal independency, the chance for societal interaction with other grownups, and to put a good illustration to their kids. Harmonizing to Ahrends, ( 2010 ) 42 % of individual parents say that holding about any occupation is better than being unemployed on benefits. Throughout Britain, a high proportion of individual parent households are already in state of affairss of terrible fiscal exposure. The cost of life 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 populating in individual parent households fall into the low-income bracket, which is defined as below 60 % of the national average income after subtracting lodging costs ( about ?195 per hebdomad for a individual parent with kids ) . In contrast, less than 5 % of two parent households fall into this class ( DWP, 2010 ) . Finch et Al ( 2010 ) province individual parent households will endure disproportionately, non merely under cuts to public services but besides under revenue enhancement additions and benefit alterations. It is clear that individual parent households, particularly those headed by adult females, are at hazard of going even more vulnerable to poorness. Jenkins, ( 2011 ) states that as most kids populating in terrible poorness are in workless families, precedence should be given to taking barriers to employment for parents populating in poorness. Key measures to battle child poorness include aid with child care costs for low income families and more support for parents who work in parttime occupations ; this could be done by raising the earned income degree at which lone parents can claim full benefits, supplying more training chances for parents who need and want to hike their accomplishments and an additions in the minimal pay. The London School of Economics and Political Science province the Misery Index is a simple economic construct, which puts together the ailments of rising prices and unemployment together into a individual sum of our fiscal despondence ( Rainford, 2011 ) . February 2011 saw it hit the highest degree since October 1992. The Fawcett Society, a charity that campaigns for equality between adult females and work forces, points out, unemployment among adult females is already at its highest for the last 20 old ages. Womans are the biggest also-rans under the public sector cuts. Womans are besides most likely to be affected by the authorities s programs to reexamine ordinances that load concern. The Fawcett Society ( 2011 ) province that the budget was a good chance missed, to show a believable growing program and had some consideration of how to enable adult females to take up new occupations in the private sector. These steps were put in topographic point to undertake the private secto r wage spread and advance family-friendly occupations, which reflect the demands of a modern work force. Lone parents are confronting a altering environment of societal protection because of decrease in services and monies available because of the cardinal authorities cuts. With the Coalition Government there has been a displacement off from back uping lone parents being full clip carers at place to an employment-based maternal theoretical account. There is a rhetoric focal point and way towards back uping employment and now the move to compulsory work-related demands. Lone parents with kids five old ages or over are treated the same as any other unemployed claimant ( Woods, 2011 ) . Lone parents are non now seen as holding caring duties but as a wider portion of a hidden unemployed. DWP ( 2008 ) province the authorities s scheme is to increase employment and lessening poorness among solitary parents but there are many obstructions still to be overcome. Gloster, et Al. ( 2010 ) province that some of this is the mutual exclusiveness between low paid, parttime untypical occupations and t he primary lovingness duties of lone parents there is besides no systematic proviso for particular paid or unpaid leave, good quality low-cost child care is hard to happen and there are few developing programmes that fit into the lives of lone parents. Without the security of a 2nd pay, child revenue enhancement credits are paid irrespective of the work position and the working revenue enhancement recognition is specifically intended as a addendum for low rewards all contribute to this mutual exclusiveness. Family-friendly employment with a work/life balance are non now portion of the authorities s policies and without action from both the Government and employers, many individual parents will stay in the poorness trap. ( Woods, 2011 ) ( Word Count 2730 )