[UK] Report claims welfare policy creates poverty trap

from The Guardian

Hélène Mulholland and Tania Branigan

Guardian Unlimited

A key government policy meant to get people back to work is keeping families stuck in a poverty trap, according to a hard-hitting report submitted to the government which calls for "family-focused" employment services.

Lisa Harker, the Department for Work and Pensions' child poverty tsar, was commissioned by the department to examine how the government could hit its target of eradicating child poverty by 2020.

Ms Harker said that forcing unemployed parents to take the first job going under the Welfare to Work programme could prove counterproductive for those living in poverty, which is defined as households living on incomes 60% below the average.

"A system which encourages parents to take any job rather than one that offers them good long-term prospects, or leads to parents 'cycling' between jobs and being out of work is neither efficient nor effective in tackling child poverty," Ms Harker warned.
Nearly half of all children in poverty live in a families where someone is already in employment, but on a low wage, according to the report, entitled Delivering on child poverty: what would it take?

The problems are particularly acute in certain groups. Around one in 10 lone parents leave work each year; more than double the number of parents who are in relationships.

Similarly, two-parent ethnic minority households are more likely to be poor even where one parent is working.

Parents needed to be directed towards jobs that offered career and salary maintenance and progression through guidance, support and skills training, Ms Harker said.

Her report argues that helping single earners to progress in work, or encouraging non-working partners to move into work, will be crucial in lifting more children out of poverty.

That means welfare-to-work programmes must be made more family-friendly, helping parents to find childcare and suitable working arrangements and recognising that fathers are increasingly involved in their children's lives.

"Whether you are a father or a mother, you need a similar level of support.

"If you're part of a couple - particularly if you're a dad - you're not automatically recognised as being a parent and access to information about childcare or a conversation about the kind of working hours you might need to balance your work and home life doesn't take place," Ms Harker told the Guardian.

"Increasingly families are trying to sort out their working and home arrangements as a family, so a man can work till five because his wife is picking up kids on some days, but will need to be around on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Welfare to work has yet to catch up with that."

The government has lifted 700,000 children out of poverty since 1998 - this figure, 23%, is just 2% short of its 2005 target - through a mix of measures including the introduction of the minimum wage and family tax credits.

But it conceded earlier this year that it was likely to miss its target of halving child poverty by 2010 and Ms Harker's report warns that even matching the current rate of progress will be "challenging" and is likely to require an increase in benefits as well as a rise in the number of parents who work.

She lauded the government's decision to bring benefit and employment agencies under one roof but called for "further reforms" such as more flexible packages of support to reach poor families, including a review of childcare subsidies.

Ms Harker said that a new "family focus" should not distract from the priorities of Jobcentre Plus, which is currently seeking to hit an employment rate of 80%.

Instead, other agencies from the private and voluntary sector should be brought in to give more tailor-made services, a call which chimes with government plans but which will provoke the ire of civil service trade unions who say this is back-door privatisation.

The minister for employment and welfare reform, Jim Murphy, said: "We have done a great deal to help lone parents into work, with more than a million now in employment, lifting thousands of children out of poverty.

"However, 40% of poor children live in two-parent households in which at least one adult works.

"It is clear we must now look at how we can develop our services to better cater for all kinds of families: helping both the mother and father to work, boosting their joint household income and bringing yet more children out of poverty."

Kate Bell, policy manager for One Parent Families, welcomed the report's recommendations but warned that Jobcentre Plus would need more funding.

She added: "Anti-poverty measures such as the New Deal for Lone Parents have made a real difference in tackling the disadvantage in single parent households and could be equally effective for parents looking after children in low-income, couple-families."

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, added: "The report states clearly that Government cannot rely on parental employment alone and will need to improve financial support if it is to meet its child poverty targets in 2010 and 2020."