In 2014 there were two million single parents with dependent children – that is nearly one in four households with children – and this figure is growing. Single parent families are being hit harder than almost any other group by this government’s policies. Single parents rely on childcare to work, to study and to deal with unexpected emergencies. Successive governments have promised to make work pay, but last week’s report from single parent charity Gingerbread, ‘Paying the Price’, shows that under the Conservatives, work simply does not pay for single parents.
With cuts to benefits that have hit single parents hardest, and rising childcare costs, many parents have been placed in crisis, unable to work because they cannot afford the difference. Childcare costs have risen by a third in three years and the Gingerbread report found the majority of single parents will be unable to receive a decent income, even with universal credit. They will struggle to meet a basic living standard and this is only made worse if they live in high-cost areas like London, or have several children. Labour wants to help all parents get back to work and earn a decent income for a better quality of life. Our 25 hours’ free childcare provision means that parents will be able to enjoy the benefits of working, rather than sacrificing their income and time with their children.
The effects of lower pay, reduced benefit and higher childcare costs are compounded by under employment – single parents cannot work the hours they want to and need to. National statistics show that the proportion of single parents working part-time but who want to be in full-time employment has doubled since 2007. The Gingerbread research showed that a single parent earning the minimum wage, paying for childcare fees will be just £1 a week better off for each additional hour worked. The trade-off between time with your children and the need to work nearly 19 hours a week more is not a fair choice. Labour want to fight for, and represent, parents in the upcoming election. You should not be paying the price for wanting to go back to work. When over 90 per cent of single parents are women, it is clear who is being hit hardest here, backing up a survey by Mumsnet in January which showed that two-thirds of mothers believe the cost of childcare is an obstacle to them working more. Not only are single parents paying the price, women are too.
The Gingerbread report also showed clearly that single parents struggled with ‘hidden’ increased costs outside of childcare. This could be school meals, activities, trips which single parents are struggling to cover in upfront costs. Following this almost half of single parents have been forced to borrow money from family, friends or more official lenders to cover childcare and additional child-related costs. Almost a third had missed a childcare payment, and one in seven had missed more than two.
With over half of single parents admitting the overall cost was difficult to manage, Labour’s 25 hours’ free childcare provision would help many thousands of single parents to get back to work, helping to cut child poverty, rather than leaving them worrying about the affordability of employment. In the study when single parents were asked how they afforded childcare, the replies were: ‘go without other things’, ‘beg childminder’, ‘raid the savings’ and ‘go without food’. It is crystal-clear that the cost of childcare is serving to increase child poverty, the gender pay gap and reducing the life chances of so many children. Academics from the London School of Economics estimate that by 2020 a continuation of current tax and benefit policies would leave single parents with a 5 per cent drop in their income compared to 2010, more than any other group. We may no longer see the rabid anti-single parent rhetoric that we once had to endure from the Conservative party, but its actions in government are no better. JK Rowling wrote about how the Conservatives ‘marginalised’ single parents in the 2010 election, saying:
‘Child poverty remains a shameful problem in this country, but it will never be solved by throwing millions of pounds of tax breaks at couples who have no children at all. David Cameron tells us that the Conservatives have changed, that they are no longer the nasty party, that he wants the United Kingdom to be “one of the most family-friendly nations in Europe”, but I, for one, am not buying it.’
Nothing has changed in their time in government – her words still ring true. We need to end the hidden war on single parents, help them return to work and get household incomes on an upward curve once more.
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Alison McGovern MP is shadow minister for children and families. She tweets @Alison_McGovern
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