This week I have raised the question of whether we could do more to tackle child poverty by helping more lone parents into work. It is one of the key issues being considered in a major independent review of welfare currently being carried out in my department.
I am very keen to get the views of Progress members on this issue as we seek to speed up progress towards our historic target of eradicating child poverty in Britain by 2020.
A decade ago the UK had the highest child poverty rate in the industrialised world. Today it is falling faster than anywhere in the EU. Since 1997, 800,000 children have been lifted out of relative poverty, 2 million out of absolute poverty.
However, children of lone parents not in work are over five times more likely to be in poverty than children of lone parents in full time employment. And three times more likely to be in poverty than children of lone parents in part time work. Around 40 per cent of poor children live in lone parent households – the majority of which are non-working.
The UK has one of the highest proportions of families headed by a lone parent in Europe. Despite progress in increasing the lone parent employment rate (up 11.8 percentage points since 1997) – we still have the lowest rate of any major European country. We only require lone parents to look for work when the youngest child reaches 16. Furthermore when the youngest child reaches 16, there is evidence that as many as a third of lone parents move almost seamlessly onto incapacity benefit or make a further claim for income support within the following 12 months.
A significant proportion of our progress so far in tackling child poverty is due to helping lone parents move into work. In Scotland, where even more people have come off benefits into work, they have already exceeded the target of reducing child poverty by a quarter. And raising the lone parent employment rate to our target of 70 per cent would see a further 200,000 children lifted out of poverty across the UK.
There is absolutely no case for cutting lone parent benefits – this would be wrong in principle and damaging to the health and well being of children in lone parent families. But equally, we risk failing future generations of children if we are not prepared to learn from other progressive countries.
As we develop wrap-around childcare and improve the support available, so we should be prepared to look again at the way we help lone parents get ready for a return to the labour market. And the steps they need to take to get back into work and so lift their families out of poverty. The best way we can help lone parent families is by helping all those who can to get work. That is why we have asked David Freud to look at how the welfare system can more effectively tackle entrenched poverty and promote social mobility.
You can read the full version of my speech by clicking here www.dwp.gov.uk/aboutus/2007/30-01-07.asp