The Benefits Trap................

9.54.08pm GMT Wed 28th Oct 2009

I see Income Support, JSA and lone parents are in the news again today.

Look for work or lose your benefits, single parents told in welfare shake-up.

Single parents will be forced to look for work or risk losing benefits in welfare reforms implemented today.

Lone parents whose youngest children are aged 10 or 11 will be switched from Income Support to the tougher Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) which is paid at the same rate but requires them to attend fortnightly JobCentre interviews and show they have applied for jobs or lose benefits.

Firstly, next year the age of the youngest child will drop to 7. At the moment, because I am on Income Support I have to go to the Job Centre twice a year for a 'work focused interview'. At these interviews me and the interviewer chat about the weather, what's going on in the world etc. The one thing we don't really discuss is me going back to work. This is not because I don't want to, it is not because they don't want me too, it is simply because we both know it is impossible.

Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper today insisted the reforms are 'family friendly'.

She said: 'What we want to do is help more parents in to work, but also to do so in a family friendly way.'

She said under the new regulations, parents would only have to look for part-time work.

These reforms are a lot of things, but family freindly they aren't. The clue is in the 'lone parent' bit. How on earth can forcing a lone parent back into work be in the best interests of the parent or the children. Part time work is great, if you can find it. For the last two years I have been looking for a job that is 16 hours or less a week. I have found hens teeth but I have yet to find a part time job.

She told GMTV: 'They may also be able to look just for work that fits with school hours if they're lone parents as well because I do think it's important often to be able to pick the kids up from school and as a mum I know how important it is to be able to spend time with the children.'

Finding a job that fits in with school hours isn't actually that hard, how ever finding a job that gives you 14 weeks holiday a year is. See the problem isn't when the kids are in school, it's when they aren't. Let's say I was to work 16 hours a week. I earn minimum wage for those hours which means £92.80 a week. For those 14 weeks that I need to pay for childcare I will be paying £144 a week. Now I should be able to claim this back from the government but there have been many horror stories regarding this particular benefit. If you use a regular amount of childcare every week it's easy, but if you are only using childcare for school holidays you have to submit a new claim for every holiday. You pay the childcare and then claim it back. Now if I only earn £210 per week all in (topped up by Tax Credits) and then shell out £150 a week on childcare that leaves £60 a week for all the bills, food etc, until my claim is processed and the childcare allowance received (takes about 6 weeks).

She said single parents would be able to access other benefits and that even part-time work could help lift them out of poverty.

She added: 'I do think it's right that as the children grow older there are more responsibilities on parents to start looking for work.

'We know that is good for both the parents and children as well.'

This is absolute bo****ks. Part time work will not lift a single lone parent out of poverty. It can't. In most cases it will actually leave the family worse off. I recieve approx £210 a week in money. I then have my council tax and rent paid. Now before there are howls of outrage, I don't set these figures. My income support is for me, the rest is child tax credits. Now if my ex husband were to pay maintenance the DWP would deduct that from the tax credits. Sadly my tax paying husband doesn't think he should support his children so it's down to the state. If I earn £92.80 a week I will recieve no income support/JSA and will lose £30 off my tax credits. So I won't be better off. By the time you have added extra travel etc, I will be worse off.

Once you do manage to get a part time job there are many pitfalls. You cannot do anymore than 16 hours. No overtime, no cover, because if you do, DWP will take that off you and then apply the average earnings bit. Say you work 3 extra hours in one week, the following week they will deduct those hours from your benefits, they will then decide that over a month you will averagly work three hours more so they will deduct those three hours even if you didn't work them. This means that you must never ever work any extra hours which will no doubt annoy your boss and your colleagues. The only way round this is to work the extra hours in lieu, which can be done in a small business but not in a big one. It also leaves you open to exploitation.

And of course, whilst all this is going on, the child minder is coining in £144 a week from the tax payer, over twice what it would cost the tax payer if I were to stay at home and look after my children. If I got a full time job it would be even worse for me, my children and the tax payer.

40 x £5.80 = £232 per week. Childcare per week (term time) = £90 of which the tax payer will pay £67.50. Childcare per week (holidays) = £360 of which the tax payer will pay £270. Play schemes are another childcare system, they cost approx £18 per child, per day, so if you have three children thats £270 per week of which the tax payer will pay £202. Trust me tax payers, if I was to go to work either part time or full time it will cost you a hell of a lot more. It's not right, it's not fair. I hate it more than you (trust me on this one). It's a trap. The single biggest thing that stops lone parents from working is childcare, the cost and the availability.

Lone parents are not the worst welfare claimants. The biggest drain on the tax payers wallet are the couples with children where neither partner works. 1 parent could work but chooses not to, and don't fall for the bo*****s that it is more profitable not to work, none welfare dependant families do it all the time. You may not be better off but you will not be worse off. It is a well known fact that when both partners work full time the wages of one partner are virtually wiped out by the childcare costs. So how can it work when there is only one parent?.

I don't have a solution to my problem, or the problem of the welfare system in general, but I can tell you, this is not the answer. All I can do is hope that between now and next October a job comes along that fits in around my children. It is impossible to fit my children around a job. It just doesn't work like that. That is not good parenting, and after all, that's what I am, a lone parent.

I'm sure I will get a few comments along the lines off 'why should the tax payer support you' etc which is fair enough, but I ask you to remember that my situation was not a life style choice. The government are pushing these reforms on the basis that it will get more lone parents into work and reduce the welfare bill. As you have seen from my maths, that won't happen, it will increase it dramatically, and you dear tax payer, will still be footing the bill either way.

A while ago someone produced a graph that actually shows what happens financially when a lone parent tries to go back to work but for the life of me I can't find it now, if anyone can send me a link to it I would be very grateful.

Mummylonglegs 2009 http://andtherewasmethinking.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/the-benefits-trap/