Jacqui Loughrey, social security adviser at Law Centre (NI), sets out government proposals to change lone parents’ entitlement to social security benefits. The article refers to the proposals as they currently stand. There is also the possibility that Northern Ireland may take a different approach.

As part of its strategy to halve child poverty by 2010 and to eradicate it completely by 2020, the government proposes to introduce a range of measures to ensure that those who can work will be encouraged to do so. The policy intention behind the proposed changes is that paid work on social security benefits is the most sustainable route out of poverty. The proposals have been put out for consultation by the Social Security Advisory Committee and the Secretary of State is now considering the Committee’s response.

While lone parents are not the only group who will experience a cultural shift in the context within which benefits will be paid, a series of changes are to be introduced which will significantly impact upon when and how they will continue to be entitled to social security benefits generally and to Income Support in particular.

The government’s current strategy for lone parents who are in receipt of Income Support is based around a core of work focused interviews and support back into work through access to tax credits and child care.

Starting in November 2008, lone parents with a youngest child aged at least twelve will no longer be entitled to Income Support solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. Instead, they will have to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance. This means they will have to be available for work, actively seek work and must have a current Jobseeker’s agreement. This change will further mean that lone parents will lose automatic entitlement to Income Support and move to Jobseeker's Allowance from October 2009, when their youngest child reaches ten and from October 2010, when their youngest child reaches seven.

Lone parents will, however, be able to continue to claim Income Support where entitlement to that benefit is through some other route. Examples of where entitlement will continue include:

• where they are pregnant and are within eleven weeks of their expected week of childbirth;
• where they are a foster parent;
• where they receive Carer’s Allowance or are caring for a child with a disability who receives the care component of Disability Living Allowance at either the middle or highest rate.

Lone parents with a disability or a health condition themselves will be able to apply for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

Provision will be made within the ESA arrangements (to be introduced with effect from 27 October 2008), so that lone parents, who previously had a disability premium included in their entitlement to Income Support, will not have to serve the ESA assessment phase and will receive the Work Related Activity component from the commencement of their claim.

Arrangements will be made to enable certain existing lone parents who are also full time students to continue to claim Income Support while they complete a full time course or participate on approved training through the new deal scheme for lone parents. By this, transitional protection will enable those currently undertaking study or training to claim Income Support until their youngest child reaches the cut off age that applied when the course started (or until its completion, whichever is earliest). For parents who have already commenced a course of study or training when these changes are introduced in November 2008, this means that they will be able to continue to remain on Income Support until their youngest child reaches the age of sixteen or until they have completed their course.

Otherwise, lone parents wishing to undertake a course of study or training after November 2008 will be subject to the same rules as other Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants. In other words, they will normally only be allowed to be engaged in education if their studies do not compromise their agreed pattern of availability for work and they are willing and able to give up the course should a job become available.

If not engaged in a course of study or approved training (and within the timetable for change outlined above), mandatory quarterly work focused interviews will be introduced for lone parents during the last year of their eligibility for Income Support. Also, they must be willing to attend a job interview at seven days’ notice and to take up a job within 28 days. These notice periods will only apply, however, where it can be shown that it is unreasonable to expect them to do so sooner because of their caring responsibilities. Otherwise, lone parents will be expected to attend a job interview with only 48 hours’ notice and to take up employment within seven days of being notified. They will still, however, be allowed to restrict their hours to a minimum of sixteen in line with their caring responsibilities.

When determining whether a lone parent with caring responsibilities has just cause for being unable to take up paid employment, for leaving a job or for being unable to comply with a Jobseeker’s direction, eg to attend a work focused interview, the adviser must have regard to the availability of appropriate and affordable child care. Where parents indicate that this is a problem, they will be asked to demonstrate that they have taken reasonable steps to make arrangements. Where lack of child care is the reason, assurances have been given that parents should not be penalised for failing to comply. Where an adviser does not accept, however, that a parent has not taken reasonable steps to arrange child care, a decision maker will be asked to decide the question of whether a sanction is appropriate.

Advisers will have discretion to enable parents to be treated as available for work in certain circumstances. These include:

• where they have experienced a domestic emergency or a bereavement of a close friend or relative, a Jobseeker’s adviser will be able to treat a parent as available and waive the requirement to attend fortnightly job interviews for a maximum of eight weeks;
• where they are caring for a child during the school holidays, they have no child care and it would be unreasonable to expect them to make other child care arrangements; 
• where the child has been excluded from school;
• where the parent has received a parenting order or has entered a par-enting contract under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act.

The existing Jobseeker’s Allowance Hardship Provisions will include lone parents as a vulnerable group. Changes to the current hardship scheme are anticipated to ensure that payments can be made to lone parents who do not fall into any of the categories described above or who fail to comply with Jobseeker’s Allowance requirements. This is because they may face a sanction of 40 per cent of their applicable amount. Although warnings will be given by telephone and by letter to try and avoid their occurrence, it is clear from the changes proposed that sanctions will increase under of the new scheme and will be imposed.

In terms of support which will be available to facilitate a return to paid work, lone parents will be able to:

• attend voluntary options and choices events. Targeted at those who are reaching the stage when they will have to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance, the purpose of these events is to afford a forum at which lone parents might be advised about what is available once they become jobseekers;
• receive support and guidance from a personal adviser for the first six months after moving into work;
• receive a weekly payment of £40 for the first 52 weeks after moving into work. This will continue to be available through the Work Credit Scheme and will be available to all lone parents who have been on benefit for twelve months or more and who have moved into work of more than sixteen hours a week;
• make a claim to the ‘In Work Emergency Fund’. This will be available during the first 26 weeks that a lone parent is in work. Its purpose is to meet one-off costs which would otherwise prevent a lone parent from remaining in work.

As the changes in arrangements represent a cultural shift and are likely to have wide-reaching implications for lone parents throughout Northern Ireland, Law Centre (NI) intends to keep a close watch on the implementation and impact of those changes.