There are slightly different timescales for existing lone parent claimants with a child aged between 12 and 16.
During the recession how will 90,000 lone parents find employment in first year of Jobseeker's Allowance?
The latest measures were introduced before the economic recession and recent credit crunch. Originally Government said that the jobs were there and people just needed to be pushed into taking them. Now Government has the same policy in a radically different economic climate, so the new Minister says that the worst of economic times is by an extraordinary coincidence the very best time to put 100,000 lone parents onto a jobseeking programme so that "lone parents do not become further detached from the labour market". You can read more from the Minister at the 6th Delegated Legislation Committee debate here.
Earlier in October 2008 the Department of Work and Pensions told the Social Security Advisory Committee that 60% of claimants move off Jobseeker's Allowance within 13 weeks; 80% of claimants find work or move off benefit by 26 weeks and 90% find work or move off benefit by the end of the first year. You can read our notes from the DWP here.
Income Support is paid weekly and JSA 2-weekly. At the start of the JSA claim, lone parents will be expected to take out a repayable loan until they receive their first JSA payment. This is attracting considerable criticism from child poverty and lone parent stakeholders.
Normally, JSA claimants are expected to sign on 2-weekly and have an Action Plan for seeking employment of at least 16 hours. This is called the "fortnightly job review" or FJR. Education Otherwise is making the case to the Department of Work and Pensions that home educating lone parents should be able to sign on by post in a comparable way with parents of excluded children and parents in the school holidays who can't get short term childcare. EO already made this point in our submission to the Social Security Advisory Committee in June.
The longer lone parents are on JSA, the more the employment services will step up attempts to get claimants to consider different jobs outside their preferred or specialist field and to investigate other childcare options etc. The first year will be in-house at the JobCentre but the second year will be with privatised employment services. More details available here.
What about home educating lone parents?
Education Otherwise has lobbied the Department of Work and Pensions, the Social Security Advisory Committee and Members of Parliament and Ministers continuously on this issue. We remain adamantly opposed to the introduction of these measures. As we stated in our submission to the Social Security Advisory Committee in June, we believe the proposals to be totally unworkable.
"Whether one accepts the principles behind the change or not, the proposed new regulations are contradictory and confused and require a great deal more planning and consultation. Under the present hastily drawn-up proposals, the entire system will shortly grind to a halt, vulnerable families will be plunged into poverty and the JobCentres will be flooded with expensive and time-consuming appeals. It is not too late to demand that the Government think again. Why wait till it all goes pear-shaped as it certainly will? Why not work to get it right in the first place?"
In addition, we are currently talking to the Department of Work and Pensions and to other stakeholder groups about how we can possibly limit the damage of these measures on home educating lone parents and their families. The DWP has agreed that this is a policy issue and that home educating lone parents should be treated sensitively. More about this can be found in our notes.
Education Otherwise had last a minute opportunity to review the JobCentre training material to see how home educating lone parents could be "treated as available for work" in order to meet the criteria for JSA and not lose benefits.
Fiona Nicholson from Education Otherwise attended a Lone Parent Stakeholder meeting at the Department of Work and Pensions with Minister Kitty Ussher on November 13th 2008. Read the report of the meeting here.
We are preparing a separate briefing paper with FAQ raised by home educating lone parents.
