A Law Centre (NI) Briefing
October 2008

Background

These regulations originate in the July 2007 Green Paper, In Work, Better Off: Next Steps to Full Employment, in which the Government outlined its proposals to require lone parents to be more actively engaged with the labour market. The Government confirmed its intention to proceed with these proposals in December 2007 in Ready for Work: Full Employment in Our Generation. The backdrop is the Government’s targets of an 80% employment rate by [insert date] and a 70% lone parent employment rate by 2010.¹ The measures are also part of the strategy towards meeting the policy commitment to halve child poverty by 2010 and to eradicate it by 2020.

The regulations will move lone parents with a youngest child aged 12 from Income Support to Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) from November 2008. Thereafter, the regulations will extend to lone parents with a youngest child aged 10 (from October 2009) and aged 7 (from October 2010). Lone parents will be required to actively seek work as a condition of JSA although there is a welcome additional degree of flexibility afforded to lone parents to restrict their availability for work. The additional flexibility did not meet all the suggestions made by stakeholders to the DWP prior to the regulations being introduced in England and Wales. In effect sanctions may be applied (up to 40% reduction in benefit) for failing to meet the conditions of JSA.

The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) consulted on the regulations in May 2008 and a report was laid before Westminster in October 2008. The SSAC expressed ‘serious concern about the position in Northern Ireland’ commenting that while it ‘would normally expect the principle of parity to be followed ... we do not believe [because of the childcare position] that it can be possible for DSD to attempt to replicate the GB provisions.  Accordingly, we shall be separately advising DSD against proceeding with these proposed measures in Northern Ireland.’ [para. 6.2].

Law Centre (NI) supports a policy of positively encouraging lone parents into paid work at an appropriate time. Most lone parents are not out of the labour market from choice but often because of the complexity of combining work outside the home with the demands of sole parental responsibility. Efforts to move lone parents into the labour market should be through measures tailored to support and encourage lone parents to take up appropriate paid work rather than through sanctions.

We foresee a number of difficulties in introducing these regulations in Northern Ireland at this time. First, the childcare infrastructure required to underpin the regulations by supporting lone parents to take up job offers is not in place, nor is there a lead Department responsible for developing this. Second, these proposals were developed in a more propitious economic climate. With rising unemployment,² the current economic environment is no longer supportive and lone parents may find it difficult to secure jobs that allow them to combine their work and family life. For example, demands from employers may entail working non-traditional hours eg evenings/weekends in retail and residential care sectors. Third, the impact of the regulations may have unintended consequences on child poverty by exposing lone parents to the risk of benefit sanction.

We appreciate the complexity of the issues presented by these regulations at both policy and operational level and we conclude this briefing with consideration of some options in moving forward.

Childcare - Key Differences in NI

OFMDFM’s Inquiry into Child Poverty found that ‘childcare provision in Northern Ireland is woefully inadequate’.  It noted that ‘this is particularly the case for lone parent families and families with a child who has a disability and is also a specific problem in rural areas.’ The regulations are premised upon an appropriate childcare infrastructure that supports lone parents to take up offers of employment. In England and Wales, the Childcare Act (2006) creates a statutory duty on local authorities to meet the local demand for childcare. There is no corresponding duty in Northern Ireland. Further, In England and Wales, there is a commitment to the provision of extended school opening hours between 8am and 6pm to deliver wrap-around childcare. The lack of a lead department to co-ordinate childcare policy also sets Northern Ireland apart from the rest of the UK. Until there is greater parity in relation to childcare provision, and a determination as to where responsibility for this lies, the policy argument for adherence to the principle of parity in treatment of lone parents, work requirements and sanctions is difficult to sustain.

This was recognised by the Inquiry into Child Poverty in NI which urged caution in proceeding to introduce these measures in Northern Ireland at this time: ‘... before introducing welfare reform programmes which have been developed in other parts of the UK, careful consideration is given to their implementation in NI and, in particular, we recommend that an evaluation is carried out of whether necessary support services, such as childcare, are in place prior to their implementation.’³

Labour Market

An economic downturn makes for a difficult climate in which to introduce these measures and it may become increasingly difficult for those with parenting responsibilities to secure jobs that will support them to match their work and home lives. The right to request flexible working arrangements, for example, only applies to those who have been with their employer for 26 weeks and does not presently extend to parents of older children above 5 years of age unless the child is disabled. A lone parent would not therefore have a right to request flexible working arrangements, such as term time working or working school hours, prior to taking up a job (or shortly after staring work, if their circumstances change). There is a mismatch here between a social security policy which requires lone parents to look for work and labour market policy which does not support parents in these circumstances. Much more needs to be done to encourage employers to offer vacancies on a flexible working basis.⁴

The Impact of the Regulations

The regulations will impact on 2,000 lone parents in the first year and over 8,000 lone parents in total over the next three years. Of the 26,160 lone parents in receipt of Income Support in Northern Ireland, 95.2% are women.⁵

The most recent labour market figures show that 371,000 women are economically active. 47% of working age economically active women have dependent children. In 2007, there were 46,914 day care places for children under twelve (a fall of 1% since 2002). 43% of economically inactive women of working age cite family/home reasons for non-participation in the labour market. The economic activity rate is lower for women with three or more dependent children.

In-Work Poverty

While the risk of poverty is greater among workless households, almost half of children in poverty live in households where at least one parent works. Moving lone parents from benefit to work should not lead to in-work poverty. Employment for lone parents needs to be secure, economically viable and compatible with lone parents need to care for their children.

Childcare costs are a significant impediment to returning to work, particularly where this is low paid work. The law prohibits children from being ‘home alone’ until they are 14 years of age. The first batch of parents to be subject to these regulations (with a youngest child of 12) will need to find and pay for childcare to cover the hours they are not at home with their child. While Tax Credits pay for 80% of the cost of regulated childcare to an upper limit of £175 for one child and £300 for two or more children) this covers the cost of formal childcare only which may not be readily available if a parent works a typical hours e.g. evening work/shift work.

When the regulations extend to parents with younger children, the costs of childcare and the costs associated with work (eg travel), coupled with the loss of passported benefits, such as free school meals, may tip lone parents on low wages into in-work poverty. In two years time when these regulations are triggered for lone parents with a youngest child aged 7, a lone parent with three young children aged 7, 8 and 10, for example, will have to find childcare costs for three children – costs which will rise during school holidays. Over a quarter of families in Northern Ireland have three or more children and 43% of these are low income households.⁶

Many parents, including lone parents, fall back on informal care from family members.⁷ As lone parents experience increasing pressure to actively engage with the labour market, so too may those on whom lone parents rely for informal childcare. The Government’s current Green Paper (No-one Written Off) proposes that partners of claimants should also actively engage in looking for work. Such measures are likely to impact upon family members, such as grandparents, who currently play an important role in childcare.

Sanctions and Child Poverty

The most troubling aspect of the regulations is the likely impact of sanctions on lone parents for failing to actively seek work. Sanctioning lone parents is likely to further increase the risk of child poverty for an already vulnerable group.

Significant concessions have been made which allow lone parents considerable flexibility to restrict their availability for work. For example, lone parents may be permitted to take four weeks rather than seven days to take up a job and may be treated as available for work during school holidays if they can show there is no other suitable childcare available. However, lone parents must be available for work 16 hours and week and the onus is on the lone parent to demonstrate that there is no suitable childcare. The Department of Work and Pensions Committee have commented that ‘sanctions should never apply where there is proven lack of affordable and suitable childcare.’⁸ Until at least such times as adequate and affordable childcare is available, parents should be able to decline a job offer because they believe the childcare available is unsuitable to the needs of their child, without facing the risk of sanction.

Ways Forward

Our preferred option is to defer implementation of these regulations until an appropriate level of affordable and quality childcare is in place in Northern Ireland. Failing this, we would recommend an evaluation of the implementation of the measures on the initial cohort (parents with a youngest child aged 12). This would serve two purposes. First, it would give a clear picture of the impact of the measures on lone parents and their children prior to the further roll-out of the proposals. Second, it would provide an opportunity for the Department and the Committee to review the administration of the measures with a view to identifying any ways in which this could be improved to benefit lone parents. It is interesting to note that across the UK as a whole the employment rate for lone parents whose youngest child is aged 12 or over already meets the government’s target of 70 percent.

Conclusion

While we welcome efforts to encourage lone parents back to work, this should be through a system that supports engagement with the labour market rather than through the threat of sanctions. We have recommended that implementation of these regulations is deferred in Northern Ireland. Failing that, the complexities facing lone parents need to be recognised in rolling out these proposals and we are not convinced that these measures offer sufficient flexibility to meet the complex needs of lone parents.

Lone parents face great barriers to employment and we are concerned that at a time of anticipated contraction of the labour market, lone parents will have to put themselves through the hoops of seeking work when it is recognised that sufficient levels of affordable and quality childcare is simply not available.

Finally, on social security parity the rationale underpinning these proposals is the comprehensive availability of childcare. In the absence of parity of childcare provision in Northern Ireland there is a compelling case for diverging from the arrangements elsewhere in the UK.