an article by Ruth Cain (University of Kent, Canterbury, UK) published in British Politics Volume 11 Issue 4 (December 2016)
Abstract
Universal Credit is a new benefits delivery system designed to streamline UK benefits and tax credits and encourage work.
This paper examines Universal Credit’s effect on lone parent and low-paid households. Lone mothers, identified as a moral and financial risk, face conditionality which ignores barriers to employment. Universal Credit also extends conditionality to lower-paid workers and their families. It encodes contradictory gendered messages.
While individual parental responsibility is increasingly socially and legally emphasised, unemployed or low-paid parents may be forced to spend minimal time with children under threat of sanctions or workfare.
Universal Credit demonstrates a clash between market-liberal economic ideals of labour flexibility, and conservative valorisations of the good mother and (married/heteronormative) family, enhanced by ‘recovery’ discourses of thrift and responsibilisation.
This paper argues that such moral/economic incoherence will penalise ‘workless’ and ‘part-workless’ citizens who cannot fulfil neoliberal ideals of the private, self-sufficient family unit in hostile economic conditions.
Showing posts with label lone_parents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lone_parents. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
Lone Parent Obligations: an impact assessment
A report of research carried out by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex, on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions
DWP Research Report No 845
Summary
This report presents findings from an impact assessment of Lone Parent Obligations (LPO). LPO was introduced in November 2008 and since then lone parents have lost eligibility to Income Support (IS), based on the age of their youngest child, solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. In May 2012, the age of the youngest child was reduced to five and over.
The impact assessment is part of a comprehensive evaluation of LPO that has explored whether and how lone parent employment interventions provide an effective incentive to look for paid employment, alongside an effective package of support for workless lone parents to enable them to find, enter and sustain paid employment. The impact assessment quantifies the impact of LPO by providing estimates of how many lone parents were moved off out of-work benefits and into work as a result of LPO. It examines the impact of LPO on lone parents in the earlier phases of LPO, who lost entitlement to IS between November 2008 and the end of June 2011, at a time when their youngest child was at least seven-years-old.
The impact assessment found that LPO has had a much greater impact on moving lone parents into work than other previous Departmental employment programmes and initiatives aimed at lone parents. Three months after the loss of IS entitlement, LPO is estimated to have reduced the share of lone parents receiving any out-of-work benefit by between 11 and 13 percentage points, and to have increased the share in work by around 7 percentage points. Nine months after, the share receiving any out-of-work benefit had fallen further, to between a 13 and 16 percentage point reduction, and the share in work had increased to between eight and ten percentage points.
The focus of the impact assessment is on movement off benefit and into work, among those claiming IS. It does not account for the impact on new or repeat lone parent claimants, which was beyond the scope of this analysis.
Full text (PDF 101pp)
DWP Research Report No 845
Summary
This report presents findings from an impact assessment of Lone Parent Obligations (LPO). LPO was introduced in November 2008 and since then lone parents have lost eligibility to Income Support (IS), based on the age of their youngest child, solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. In May 2012, the age of the youngest child was reduced to five and over.
The impact assessment is part of a comprehensive evaluation of LPO that has explored whether and how lone parent employment interventions provide an effective incentive to look for paid employment, alongside an effective package of support for workless lone parents to enable them to find, enter and sustain paid employment. The impact assessment quantifies the impact of LPO by providing estimates of how many lone parents were moved off out of-work benefits and into work as a result of LPO. It examines the impact of LPO on lone parents in the earlier phases of LPO, who lost entitlement to IS between November 2008 and the end of June 2011, at a time when their youngest child was at least seven-years-old.
The impact assessment found that LPO has had a much greater impact on moving lone parents into work than other previous Departmental employment programmes and initiatives aimed at lone parents. Three months after the loss of IS entitlement, LPO is estimated to have reduced the share of lone parents receiving any out-of-work benefit by between 11 and 13 percentage points, and to have increased the share in work by around 7 percentage points. Nine months after, the share receiving any out-of-work benefit had fallen further, to between a 13 and 16 percentage point reduction, and the share in work had increased to between eight and ten percentage points.
The focus of the impact assessment is on movement off benefit and into work, among those claiming IS. It does not account for the impact on new or repeat lone parent claimants, which was beyond the scope of this analysis.
Full text (PDF 101pp)
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
Understanding Employment Barriers for Lone Parents in Great Britain: Research Gaps and Missed Opportunities
an article by Tina Haux (University of Lincoln, UK) published in Social Policy & Administration Volume 47 Issue 4 (August 2013)
Abstract
A key feature of the previous Labour government in Britain was the large increase in government-sponsored research as part of its wider commitment to evidence-based policy-making.
This article focuses on one area of government-sponsored research as a case study to examine the relationship between research evidence, policy ideas and programme evaluation. The case study chosen for this article is research on lone parents not in work commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions between 1997 and 2010.
Following a brief review of the research, the main shortcomings in our understanding of the employment barriers for lone parents as well as the reasons for these shortcomings are identified and discussed. The reasons explaining the lack of progress are related to both the content of the research as well as the institutional set-up of research commissioning in government.
The article concludes by drawing lessons from this case study to improve the quality and potential usefulness of research for policy-making in the short and medium term.
Abstract
A key feature of the previous Labour government in Britain was the large increase in government-sponsored research as part of its wider commitment to evidence-based policy-making.
This article focuses on one area of government-sponsored research as a case study to examine the relationship between research evidence, policy ideas and programme evaluation. The case study chosen for this article is research on lone parents not in work commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions between 1997 and 2010.
Following a brief review of the research, the main shortcomings in our understanding of the employment barriers for lone parents as well as the reasons for these shortcomings are identified and discussed. The reasons explaining the lack of progress are related to both the content of the research as well as the institutional set-up of research commissioning in government.
The article concludes by drawing lessons from this case study to improve the quality and potential usefulness of research for policy-making in the short and medium term.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Surviving Poverty: The Impact of Lone Parenthood
via Poverty Alliance January e-news
research conducted by Fiona McHardy in partnership with community researchers from Fife Gingerbread
Published January 2013
This is the third piece of participatory research to be launched as part of the Poverty Alliance’s EPIC project and is the first to have worked with lone parents to look at their experiences of living on a low income in a rural community.
Specifically, the research has sought to better understand those factors that contribute to, or diminish, the well-being of lone parents. The research was carried out by lone parents who were involved with Fife Gingerbread and went through a comprehensive process of research training, which has not only help build their research skills but has also increased their confidence and ability to speak out on matters that are important to them.
Amongst the key issues to emerge from the report are:
Full text (PDF 52pp)
research conducted by Fiona McHardy in partnership with community researchers from Fife Gingerbread
Published January 2013
This is the third piece of participatory research to be launched as part of the Poverty Alliance’s EPIC project and is the first to have worked with lone parents to look at their experiences of living on a low income in a rural community.
Specifically, the research has sought to better understand those factors that contribute to, or diminish, the well-being of lone parents. The research was carried out by lone parents who were involved with Fife Gingerbread and went through a comprehensive process of research training, which has not only help build their research skills but has also increased their confidence and ability to speak out on matters that are important to them.
Amongst the key issues to emerge from the report are:
- A number of factors contributed to well-being (family and support networks, emotional and physical health, choice and freedom), but underpinning many issues was that of low income;
- Parents spoke of the problems of stress associated with dealing with financial problems. This was compounded by fears about the impact of welfare changes;
- Rising costs, particularly in relation to food and fuel, were having a real impact. Some parents skipped meals to ensure that their children did not go without;
- Access to employment and employability services was hampered by a range of barriers including childcare and transport.
- Lone parents faced a range of barriers to services. This included public transport, digital exclusion and lack of knowledge of support available within their area.
Full text (PDF 52pp)
Monday, 31 December 2012
Lone parents, poverty and policy in the European Union
an article by Yekaterina Chzhen (University of Oxford, UK) and Jonathan Bradshaw (University of York, UK) published in Journal of European Social Policy volume 22 Number 5 (December 2012)
Abstract
Although there is considerable research evidence to show that children in lone-parent families are at increased risk of poverty, there have been few comparative analyses of lone parents in Europe.
Using the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2009, this paper compares the prevalence and characteristics of lone-parent families, analyses the poverty and deprivation risks of children, and evaluates the potential impact of social transfer income packages on child poverty reduction.
We use the unique personal identifiers of mothers, fathers and partners to define lone-parent families with greater precision. Using a multi-level framework, we find lower child poverty rates in countries with more generous social transfers, even after controlling for the country standard of living.
A reverse pattern is observed for material deprivation: the negative effect of social transfer income washes out when the GDP per capita is controlled for, which itself has a negative and significant effect on material deprivation.
Abstract
Although there is considerable research evidence to show that children in lone-parent families are at increased risk of poverty, there have been few comparative analyses of lone parents in Europe.
Using the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2009, this paper compares the prevalence and characteristics of lone-parent families, analyses the poverty and deprivation risks of children, and evaluates the potential impact of social transfer income packages on child poverty reduction.
We use the unique personal identifiers of mothers, fathers and partners to define lone-parent families with greater precision. Using a multi-level framework, we find lower child poverty rates in countries with more generous social transfers, even after controlling for the country standard of living.
A reverse pattern is observed for material deprivation: the negative effect of social transfer income washes out when the GDP per capita is controlled for, which itself has a negative and significant effect on material deprivation.
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Struggling to make ends meet: Single parents and income adequacy under universal credit
a paper by Donald Hirsch (Director, Centre for Research in Social Policy,
Loughborough University) published by Gingerbread
Introduction
From 2013, universal credit will start replacing the present benefits and tax credit system as the main financial support for families on low incomes. Single parent families are highly dependent on such support to make ends meet, whether they are in or out of work. To what extent will the new system meet their needs?
The new system has a number of features that could potentially help single parents. It will be simpler overall than the present system, reducing the confusing array of entitlements and forms to fill in. It will offer new opportunities to improve family income through part time work, allowing single parents to keep some or all of their out of work entitlements when they work a few hours a week. And it will reduce some of the most severe barriers to improving family income, in particular the most extreme situations where families can currently lose over 90 per cent of additional earnings through a reduction in benefits combined with higher income tax bills.
However, ultimately the extent to which the system helps single parent families lift themselves out of poverty and achieve an adequate standard of living will depend on the level at which entitlements are set. In the past two years, there have already been significant cuts to both benefits and tax credits, and many of these will be carried over into universal credit. The system is coming in when, like many people in Britain, single parents are generally seeing living costs rise at a faster rate than earnings (or state entitlements). The combination of these factors makes it inevitable that, even with the help of universal credit, many families will struggle to make ends meet.
This paper gives an initial snapshot of how provisional universal credit entitlements (announced as illustrative figures for 2012/13, the year before its introduction) compare to families’ needs. In particular we seek to illustrate the impact of universal credit on:
Introduction
From 2013, universal credit will start replacing the present benefits and tax credit system as the main financial support for families on low incomes. Single parent families are highly dependent on such support to make ends meet, whether they are in or out of work. To what extent will the new system meet their needs?
The new system has a number of features that could potentially help single parents. It will be simpler overall than the present system, reducing the confusing array of entitlements and forms to fill in. It will offer new opportunities to improve family income through part time work, allowing single parents to keep some or all of their out of work entitlements when they work a few hours a week. And it will reduce some of the most severe barriers to improving family income, in particular the most extreme situations where families can currently lose over 90 per cent of additional earnings through a reduction in benefits combined with higher income tax bills.
However, ultimately the extent to which the system helps single parent families lift themselves out of poverty and achieve an adequate standard of living will depend on the level at which entitlements are set. In the past two years, there have already been significant cuts to both benefits and tax credits, and many of these will be carried over into universal credit. The system is coming in when, like many people in Britain, single parents are generally seeing living costs rise at a faster rate than earnings (or state entitlements). The combination of these factors makes it inevitable that, even with the help of universal credit, many families will struggle to make ends meet.
This paper gives an initial snapshot of how provisional universal credit entitlements (announced as illustrative figures for 2012/13, the year before its introduction) compare to families’ needs. In particular we seek to illustrate the impact of universal credit on:
- Work as a route out of poverty and towards an adequate income level – will it support working single parents to lift their families above the poverty line, and will it support them to reach an adequate level of income for their needs?
- Work incentives – will it make a single parent better off in work than not, and will it be worthwhile to work additional hours?
- Looking at a general level at the ability of single parents with various hours of work and wages to escape poverty and reach a minimum acceptable income level
- Considering which factors will most affect the adequacy of universal credit. It makes comparisons between single parents with more or less expensive housing and childcare, and different numbers and ages of children
- Considering the effectiveness of different policy measures in improving the situation of single parents under universal credit, to help understand what future improvements could best produce stronger work incentives – and therefore a more adequate living standard – for single parents and their children.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
A dynamic perspective on how the UK personal tax and benefit system affects work incentives and redistributes income
an IFS Briefing Note (BN132) by Mike Brewer (Institute for Economic and Social Research, University of Essex and Institute for Fiscal Studies) and Monica Costa Dias and Jonathan Shaw (Institute for Fiscal Studies)
Executive summary
Executive summary
- This briefing note summarises a project that took a life-cycle perspective to understand how taxes and benefits affect incentives to work and earn more, and the way in which they redistribute income. It analysed the simulated lifetimes of women (and their families) whose characteristics are taken from survey data and whose behaviour is derived from a model of individual decision-making that broadly replicates what is actually observed amongst real individuals in the UK.
- The effect of taxes and benefits on work incentives is commonly assessed using the marginal effective tax rate (METR) and the participation tax rate (PTR). Both measure the fraction of a rise in earnings that is lost to extra taxes and lower benefits – the former for an incremental rise in earnings and the latter for the rise in earnings from moving into work.
- Family circumstances have a large impact on the work incentives faced by women. Lone parents tend to face the highest METRs, but low PTRs, reflecting the relatively generous amount of in-work support that is then means-tested away as earnings rise. Women in childless couples generally enjoy the strongest work incentives, because such women are unlikely to be entitled to in-work support and because they are unlikely to be entitled to out-of-work benefits were they not to work. Women in couples with children face METRs that can be higher than those for women in couples without children, but not as high as those for working lone parents, and they tend to face higher PTRs than lone parents or women in couples without children.
- But family circumstances do not remain constant, and this means that there is considerable variability in work incentives across individuals’ lives. For example, there are large changes in the fraction of women in work facing very high METRs as women age, with the 75th percentile of METRs for the low-education group rising by well over 20 percentage points between ages 20 and 40, before falling.
- A more complete impression of how the tax and benefit system affects work incentives is given by taking into account the future consequences of working today (e.g. more experience leading to higher wages) and the possibility that work decisions tomorrow may change as a result. For some women, our impression of whether taxes and benefits weaken work incentives is affected considerably by taking this dynamic viewpoint. In particular, the true incentive to work facing lone mothers may be weaker, on average, than a static analysis suggests, partly because lone mothers will not all be lone mothers in the future and partly because lone mothers tend to face strong incentives to work but weak incentives to earn more. In general, across different levels of education, it is for low-education women that the static and forward-looking measures are most likely to differ.
- Disparities in gross income are particularly marked during the main child-rearing years and are largest for those with relatively low education. The birth of children, family transitions and their impact on women’s labour market behaviour are at the root of this pattern. But the UK tax and benefit system is particularly effective at reducing these large inequalities, particularly for women with low education.
- A substantial proportion of lifetime disparities (about 35 per cent) are established at the beginning of working life, driven by characteristics such as wealth, education and ability. A smaller proportion of them arise due to family circumstances experienced throughout women’s lives, especially lone motherhood. But we find that the UK tax and benefit system is particularly good at ensuring that lone motherhood does not lead to persistent inequalities in lifetime income.
- Changes to the UK tax and benefit system over the last two decades have strengthened its ability to reduce inequalities in lifetime income. The single most important change was the increase in work-contingent support for low-income families with children that began with the working families’ tax credit. This was especially effective in reducing inequality among women in the low-education group because it was targeted at those with low income and it increased employment, thus reducing inequality in both gross and net income. Because time out of the labour market can have permanent effects on future earnings, encouraging women to work when children are present can reduce lifetime inequalities as well as cross-sectional ones.
Friday, 6 January 2012
Lone Parent Obligations: work, childcare and the Jobseeker’s Allowance régime
a DWP Research Report (RR 782) by by Pippa Lane, Jo Casebourne, Lorraine Lanceley and Malen Davies (Inclusion)
Lone Parent Obligations were introduced in November 2008. Since then, based on the age of their youngest child, lone parents have lost entitlement to Income Support (IS) solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. From October 2010, the age of the youngest child was lowered to seven and over.
This report presents findings from qualitative research with lone parents who made a claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), either as a new or repeat claimant, or following the transition from IS, when their youngest child was seven. Sixty in-depth interviews were carried out with lone parents in three case study areas during June and July 2011. The interviews explored issues such as work readiness, childcare, claiming JSA, looking for work and any experience of moving into work.
The research was carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (Inclusion).
December 2011
Full report (PDF 92pp)
ISBN 9-781-90852-338-9
Lone Parent Obligations were introduced in November 2008. Since then, based on the age of their youngest child, lone parents have lost entitlement to Income Support (IS) solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. From October 2010, the age of the youngest child was lowered to seven and over.
This report presents findings from qualitative research with lone parents who made a claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), either as a new or repeat claimant, or following the transition from IS, when their youngest child was seven. Sixty in-depth interviews were carried out with lone parents in three case study areas during June and July 2011. The interviews explored issues such as work readiness, childcare, claiming JSA, looking for work and any experience of moving into work.
The research was carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (Inclusion).
December 2011
Full report (PDF 92pp)
ISBN 9-781-90852-338-9
Sunday, 28 August 2011
The impact of a time-limited, targeted in-work benefit in the medium-term:…
an evaluation of in work credit
IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies) Working Paper W11/14 by Mike Brewer (Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex and IFS), James Browne and Haroon Chowdry (IFS) and Claire Crawford (Institute of Education, University of London and IFS)
Abstract
Conventional in-work benefits or tax credits are now well established as a policy instrument for increasing labour supply and tackling poverty. A different sort of in-work credit is one where the payments are time-limited, conditional on previous receipt of welfare, and, perhaps, not means-tested. Such a design is cheaper, and perhaps better targeted, but potentially less effective. Using administrative data, this paper evaluates one such policy for lone parents in the UK which was piloted in around one third of the country. It finds that the policy did increase flows off welfare and into work, and that these positive effects did not diminish after recipients reached the 12 month time-limit for receiving the supplement. Most of the impact arose by speeding up welfare off-flows: the job retention of programme recipients was good, but this cannot be attributed to the programme itself.
This paper is based on research commissioned by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Full text (PDF 39pp)
IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies) Working Paper W11/14 by Mike Brewer (Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Essex and IFS), James Browne and Haroon Chowdry (IFS) and Claire Crawford (Institute of Education, University of London and IFS)
Abstract
Conventional in-work benefits or tax credits are now well established as a policy instrument for increasing labour supply and tackling poverty. A different sort of in-work credit is one where the payments are time-limited, conditional on previous receipt of welfare, and, perhaps, not means-tested. Such a design is cheaper, and perhaps better targeted, but potentially less effective. Using administrative data, this paper evaluates one such policy for lone parents in the UK which was piloted in around one third of the country. It finds that the policy did increase flows off welfare and into work, and that these positive effects did not diminish after recipients reached the 12 month time-limit for receiving the supplement. Most of the impact arose by speeding up welfare off-flows: the job retention of programme recipients was good, but this cannot be attributed to the programme itself.
This paper is based on research commissioned by the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Full text (PDF 39pp)
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