Lone parents who want to work must be helped, not harassed

Commenting on today's speech by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Rt Hon John Hutton MP, and related commentary, the Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Kate Green, said:

“Lone parents will be alarmed at the language that’s been reported today when there are no clear proposals – forcing lone parents into work will be counterproductive. Voluntary employment programmes are repeatedly shown to be far more effective. The Government should concentrate on improving and extending high quality employment support, which at present is not able to meet demand from lone parents.

“Twice as many lone parents’ leave jobs within a year as other parents. Lone parents need well paid good quality jobs, with enough flexibility to allow them to meet the demands of parenting so that they can sustain their employment. This alone would go a long way to meeting the government target for a 70% lone parent employment rate.

“Comparisons with countries like Denmark and Sweden are not being made on a like-for-like basis. Investment to make high quality child care available in those countries is much higher. A government commitment to the same level of childcare investment in Britain would do far more to help end child poverty than misguided efforts to force lone parents into inappropriate work.”

Notes to Editors

• Childcare: new information released today by The Daycare Trust (www.daycaretrust.org.uk) revealed that full-time nursery places in England for children under 2 have risen by an average of 6% in the last year (from £144 to £152).
• Pay: women part-time returners to work have a 16% pay gap with equivalent full-time workers and frequently take work for which they are overqualified. (Women and Equality Unit - http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/publications/women_returners_exe_sum.pdf).
• Child Poverty Action Group is a member of the Campaign to End Child Poverty.
  

For further information please contact:
Tim Nichols
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
press@cpag.org.uk