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MPs rebel over making single parents work
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor17 Mar 2009
MINISTERS scrambled to avoid defeat on the Government's flagship welfare bill today after the Tories and Labour rebels opposed moves to force single parents to look for work.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell was confronted with the prospect of an alliance of the Conservatives and his own party's Left-wingers over the plan to get lone parents of children as young as three to prepare for jobs.
Labour MP John McDonnell said he and other rebels were prepared to vote for a Tory amendment to require parents of children aged five or over to seek work.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Theresa May said her party backed wider moves for welfare reform but the move to crack down on lone parents of toddlers would endanger family life for the most vulnerable.
Ms May told the Standard: “Expecting lone parents of very young children to undertake work-related activity is a step too far.
“We need to recognise that during the earliest years of their children's lives, lone parents may find it difficult to comply with stringent benefit conditionality. Radical welfare reform is what we urgently need, not Draconian measures that penalise some of the most vulnerable.”
Earlier, in what appeared to be a “sweetener” to buy off rebels, Mr Purnell pledged to pay an extra £1,500 a year to blind people in benefits.
He also argued that tougher measures to help people get back into employment meant the jobless total was increasing at a slower rate than during the recession in the early Nineties.
Reader views (6)
Where I live there is a single parent. She's had a new washing machine, fridge freezer, 3 piece suite and other goods delivered to her brand new, all thanks to the British taxpayer. She doesn't work because she hasn't any need to. Her rent gets paid for her. She pays £5 a month community charge. She always looks smart when she's out and about. As she doesn't have to work she's quite happy to keep everyone else in the street awake at night by her loud music, and constant stream of visitors at all hours, forgetting that others are getting up at 5.30am or 6am to get ready go commute to London to go to work to help keep her. Make her get a job, then she'll be too tired to keep everyone else awake at night.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent, 18/03/2009 08:49
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I acknowledge that there are single-parent scroungers out there who have no intention of going out to work ever if they can help it but I do not believe that they are in the majority.
Most of us who live and work in London are familiar with what the newspapers term "feral" children but the overwhelming majority come from homes where both parents have to work full-time out of pure necessity. Forcing single parents to work when their children are under the age of 15 is madness in my opinion. The current economic "downturn" aka depression will put paid to this crazy and wicked idea in any case. Those who believe that it is possible to live even a half-decent life while raising a family on benefits, with or without a partner or husband need their heads examined. And no, I am not single-parent, benefit-scrounger myself, thank the Lord
- Lmd, London, 17/03/2009 23:41
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My friend has 2 sisters.
Sister 1 is a midwife, works full time and earns about 36k gross. She has a teenage child.
Sister 2 works part-time 2 days per week. She has 2 children and claims Working Families Tax Credit (or whatever it is called now). She also receives maintenance from her ex-busband. Plus she is paid cash in hand for a further 2 days per week. Net income: 32k.
Where is the incentive for sister 2 to make the jump to full-time employment "offically"?
- Ian Gilbertson, Newcastrle, 17/03/2009 17:52
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...And some of us don't Andy.....I'm a single parent and have always worked full time struggling with childcare and all that entails, namely cost and the joy of joys...school holidays!!! I've blatantly had the fact that I'm a single mother held against me, so called managers demanding to know a year's holiday in advance and clock watching when I've come in slightly late due to transport problems etc. (I take my son to school at 8am in the morning so I do not have the freedom to leave early to take into account how poor our public transport is.) I'm a professional working person who has their own house and have only recently claimed benefit as I'm out of work through no fault of my own.....£30 a week wow!!!!! So I'm living the life of Riley...!!! Not all of us are scroungers...so keep the generalisations to yourself. When the government realises that to get single parents back to work they need to put in place an appropriate childcare infrastructure in for not only nurseries but also school age children. We don't all have our mummies and daddies living close by and in good health providing freebie childcare, and we're not all on the lash at the weekends...I wish!
- Sara, Twickenham, 17/03/2009 16:56
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Too many single parents use the system so they don`t have to work!!.Benefits is an easy way out for most of them.Normally you will see them hanging around supermarkets after they have dropped the kids off at school talking about thier weekend on the "lash"!!,alright for some ,eh?.Those who are willing to work especially if on a low wage,could be helped out with some sort of "top up" benefit,those who don`t get nothing,lifes tough and i don`t see why these people should get an easy ride when the rest of us struggle to pay our way!!!!
- Andy, london, 17/03/2009 15:52
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The Tories should come clean on this and acknowledge that they want to be tougher in Governemnt about Wrlfare scroungers. They are just opposing it to try to engineer a numerical embarrassment to the government
- Keith Price, Luton, England, 17/03/2009 15:47
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