2 February 2005 - Pathways to work boost for lone parents
A package of support to help lone parents move into jobs and ensure work pays was announced today by Work and Pensions Secretary Alan Johnson, as new figures show the lone parent employment rate at its highest ever level.
Pathways to Work for Lone Parents will give more choice and more help than ever before to lone parents to enable them to move off welfare and into work.
The new pilots, announced in the Department for Work and Pensions Five Year Strategy, bring together extra support and childcare help with added financial incentives to look for and move into work. The new measures will ensure a clear gain from work for lone parents, as well as guarantees about childcare support and ongoing help of professional job advisers, in return for a commitment to search for and take up the offer of work.
The Department will also pilot an additional payment of £20, on top of existing benefits, for lone parents with children at secondary school, in return for taking steps to find work.
New figures released today showed that the lone parent employment rate has hit a record high of 55.8%, an increase of 11 percentage points since 1997, but Alan Johnson said this new package would help even more lone parents move into jobs.
“There are nearly a million lone parents in work now, more than ever before. The New Deal for Lone Parents has been a real success story, helping nearly 300,000 lone parents into jobs since it started six years ago and saving the taxpayer £40 million a year.
“We intend to build on these achievements as we know that helping lone parents return to work is the best route out of poverty for themselves and their children.”
The Government’s Ten Year Childcare Strategy also gives further help for working parents, proposing nationwide 8am until 6pm affordable childcare for children up to 14 by 2010.
The package being piloted in 5 areas from April 2005 brings together the most successful government policies, ongoing pilots and new measures into a single offer. This is designed along the lines of the increasingly successful Pathways to Work approach for sick and disabled people.
Mr Johnson also announced the extension of the In Work Credit, which gives lone parents making the crucial step into work an extra £40 a week, on top of all other benefits. It has already been announced that this will be available across London, but it is now to be extended to a further six areas in the South East, recognising the higher housing costs faced in these regions. The areas are:
- Surrey and Sussex;
- Essex;
- Kent;
- Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire;
- Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire; and
- Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Mr Johnson added: “These measures will ensure even more lone parents can take the step into the workplace, confident they can support their families and leave a life on benefits behind them.”
Notes for editors
- In-Work Credit (IWC) gives £40 a week for the first year of a new job to lone parents who have been on Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance for 12 months or more. It aims to help lone parents leave benefits for full-time employment, ensuring work pays.
- It was introduced in April in the three extended schools childcare areas of Bradford, North London and South East London and extended to cover Dudley and Sandwell; Lancashire West; Leeds; Leicestershire; Staffordshire; West London; Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders; Central London; and Cardiff and Vale in October this year. It is being extended to a further four districts (Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon; City and East London; Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth; and South London) in London from April
- IWC is payable to lone parents who have been in receipt of a qualifying benefit for at least 12 months and who are starting work of at least 16 hours a week. The employment must be expected to last a minimum of five weeks.
- The employment rate for lone parents is now 55.8 per cent, compared with 45.3 per cent in 1997 – an increase of ten percentage points. The number of lone parents claiming Income Support has fallen by 205,000 since 1997 and by 38,000 in the last year.
- The Pathways to Work for Lone Parents pilots will run in Leicestershire; Dudley and Sandwell; Bradford; South East London; and North London.
- In some of these areas, parents with children over the age of 12 will be required to attend quarterly Work Focused Interviews. Under additional proposals announced today, DWP will also be piloting further measures to help lone parents with older children find work. Lone parents with children of secondary school age will receive an automatic payment of a £20 activity premium on top of their benefit if they undertake work-related activity. Locations and detailed arrangements for these pilots will be announced in due course.
- The Government has introduced a range of measures to help lone parents move into work. The New Deal for Lone Parents, the National Childcare Strategy, the National Minimum Wage and Tax Credits are making work possible and making sure that work pays. The introduction of Work Focused Interviews for lone parents has proved extremely effective in providing them with information about the range of help available to prepare them for work.
- The Government is committed to eradicating child poverty within a generation and halving it by 2010 and finding work is the most important route out of poverty; changes in labour market earnings account for roughly two thirds of exits from low income.
Press office: Lucy Inett 020 7238 0754
Out of hours: 07659 108 883
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171