1 / 10

Removing Barriers to Work for Parents in Poverty

Removing Barriers to Work for Parents in Poverty. 25 th May 2010. Worklessness and links to child poverty. Families with no working adults are at most risk of living in severe poverty (Save the Children research 2010) 51% of children living in poverty in London are from workless homes

saman
Download Presentation

Removing Barriers to Work for Parents in Poverty

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Removing Barriers to Work for Parents in Poverty 25th May 2010

  2. Worklessness and links to child poverty Families with no working adults are at most risk of living in severe poverty (Save the Children research 2010) • 51% of children living in poverty in London are from workless homes • In London 42% of lone parents work, compared to lower than the rest of the UK on 55%

  3. Barriers to Parental Employment • Personal/ Individual • Cultural • Structural

  4. Personal/ Individual Barriers • lack of confidence • Lack of skills • Skills no longer match employer demand

  5. Cultural Barriers- Employer attitudes “I’ve been to quite a few interviews and the feedback has been because I’ve been out of work for 5 years. I’m only 29. I’m not stupid. My jobs on my CV are good jobs.” (lone parent, London) “I think the key [external] barrier is the stigma they [single parents] have: employers are scared of long term unemployed and particularly of single parents - that their child will be sick and they’ll have to go home at any time.” (London staff respondent- Save the Children Focus Group) “…employers need to think about being more flexible to people who have children. Lots aren’t – they don’t want [to offer] job shares, flexi time; they don’t want [to offer] child friendly or parent friendly hours..” (London staff respondent- Save the Children focus group)

  6. Structural Barriers- Child Care “the school my son goes to – the breakfast club starts at 8:15. If you’re going for a job, that’s not early enough. Then if I want that job I have to find someone to take him to school and then it’s the same thing with after school club.” (lone parent, London) • Child Care costs 25% more in London than elsewhere in England • Parents, particularly lone parents struggle to meet costs of child care for work and learning

  7. Structural Barriers- Benefits>Work “The money is in bits and pieces. My niece went back to work but it [the in work benefits system] was so complicated. She got into arrears.” (lone parent, London) • Extra gain of work over benefits can be as little as £10 in London (London Child Poverty Commission~)

  8. Structural Barriers- Low Pay/No Pay “The pay for jobs is very low. You are better off on Income Support. If you have to leave your kids at home to do some work and take chances it should be worth your while.” (focus group participant, London) Particular challenge in London as higher costs mean wages don’t streach so far.

  9. Solutions • Importance of decent pay • Public sector leading by example • Employer attitude and employer engagement • 100% child care costs for low income families- work and training • ‘demand side’ employment initiatives

  10. Thank you for Listening Jessica Nott London Programme Manager Save the Children j.nott@savethechildren.org.uk 0207 012 6583

More Related