March is the last month that unemployed single parents with a child as young as 14 can claim income support before they are expected to return to employment or to start claiming Jobseeker's Allowance.
Due to changes in the law introduced by the government last November, these lone parents will be expected to take a job if it is offered to them or face up to six months of reduced benefits. The rule will be extended to lone parents of children as young as seven by the end of 2010.
The only exception to the rule will be if a parent cannot find appropriate or affordable childcare to cover the time they are working. But who decides if childcare suits the child?
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