Fatherhood Institute chief slams Frank Field for 'unemployed fathers' comments

In a lecture at the Attlee Foundation last week, Field said the government should move the debate about welfare reform away from getting single mothers into work irrespective of their wishes and the implications for their children. He called for the debate to focus on unemployed fathers, saying that men who refuse to take a job offered by the government should lose their benefits.

Field added that the role of breadwinner has been taken over by the taxpayer because unmarried fathers are often "young, unemployed, unemployable and unskilled".

But Rob Williams, chief executive of think-tank Fatherhood Institute, said Field’s views dated to the 1950s and called on policy-makers to focus on schemes to support fathers’ engagement with family life.

"Increasingly fathers, including low-income dads, are playing an active role in caring for their children," he said. "When their caring responsibilities are recognised and support is given to their fathering as well as their breadwinning roles, US programmes have found them more likely to graduate into employment, remain employed and become more involved fathers."

Field attributed the UK's relatively high number of single mothers to there being "so many single fathers who cannot [meet the needs of] most single mothers and their children".