Welfare Reform Bill

We support the amendment. There is clearly a balance to be struck between the state supporting lone parents to stay at home to raise a child and sooner or later requiring them to seek work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving benefit. On the one hand, there is the mindset that says that a single mother bringing up a child could not be doing more valuable work and it is an insult to call her workless even when her child reaches 12. On the other hand there is the view that, with the right childcare and personalised support, the best route out of poverty and off benefits is for a single parent, usually a mother, to get a job as soon as she can. We on these Benches believe that the best solution is for single parents to have a choice, at the very least until their child is of school age. Yes, of course it is true that some single mothers wish to get back to the workplace to earn money as soon as possible so that they do not lose touch with the world of work. They may have perfectly adequate childcare and may be able to juggle any other commitments with a job, but there will be a huge number of mothers in a quite different position—perhaps in a rural area with more than one child, or with transport and childcare problems, not to mention the difficulties of finding a suitable job with flexible working. There is something faintly ludicrous about a lone mother desperately trying to find the right person to look after her child while she dashes off to an unfulfilling part-time job, when the person who should be looking after the child is herself. In all legislation, the welfare of children, particularly very young children, must take precedence over all other considerations. We therefore think that lone parents with children up to at least school age should not be required to seek work.