From October this year 120,000 single parents whose youngest is aged seven will be required to seek work. Parents must look for jobs of 16 hours or more, and parents with children aged under 12 can limit their job-search to school-hours jobs. But according to Gingerbread the lack of flexible jobs out there could jeopardise plans to have more single parents in work.
Gingerbread’s national survey of single parent members and users of NetMums website found a high number of single parents who had seen no or few jobs they could apply for advertised at part time hours (62%); within school hours (97%); as a job share (95%); or flexible in some other way (97%).
Launching a Gingerbread Briefing on flexible working today, chief executive of the charity Fiona Weir called for Government to move faster on plans for flexible working:
She said: "The business case for flexible working is proven with 92% of employers agreeing that people work best when they can balance work and other aspects of their lives. Recent policy changes have focused on pressuring single parents to seek work or risk benefit cuts. But that isn’t what is needed. Nationally nearly 60 per cent of single parents are already in work (2) and most of those on benefits say they want a job. A workplace that works better for single parents is the missing part of the jigsaw. Without action from Government and employers many single parents will remain trapped in poverty."
The Coalition Government has committed to introduce flexible working for all and launched a taskforce on children and families.
It is also calling on employers to offer employees a set number of paid days per year for caring for dependents, offer training on managing flexible working to all managers and offer jobs of 16 hours per week so that parents can claim working tax credit.
