Welfare reforms would see parents in work once child reaches seven
Ben Cook
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lone parents would have to look for work when their youngest child reaches seven years old, under new government proposals.
The Department for Work and Pensions welfare reform green paper, No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility, also proposed allowing child maintenance payments to be overlooked when calculating a parents entitlement to benefit.
The green paper outlines plans to abolish incapacity benefits and income support. They would be replaced by employment and support allowance (ESA), for people who can’t work for medical reasons, and jobseekers’ allowance (JSA) for everyone who is able to work.
In addition to lone parents being expected to look for work, the paper also proposes that partners of benefit recipients should “take active steps to look for work once their youngest child is seven years old”.
“We recognise that all families face challenges in balancing work and caring responsibilities, but in many ways it should be easier for a couple to combine work
with family responsibilities than it is for a lone parent”, the green paper said.
But Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, said the proposals were limited by the government’s “obsession with full-time work”.
She added it was “far better that the Government encourage people to take steps back into employment that fit with their caring or health needs, than insist on full time work as the only response to a life on the dole”.