Lone Parents and Paid Work: Issues and Policy Implications

Marlene Levine, Helen Wyn

The Evaluation Unit of the Social Policy Agency recently completed a study, Lone Parents and Paid Work, which aimed to determine the factors influencing the participation of lone parents in the paid workforce and to explore options for facilitating their entry or re-entry into paid work.

This paper summarises the main findings of the study and comments on some of the issues that arise for social policy. An examination of the patterns of workforce participation found among the lone parents in the study reveals two factors important to lone parents being self-supporting: substantial experience of employment prior to becoming a lone parent, and education and training that qualified lone parents for well-paid work. The next sections describe the main categories of difficulties lone parents faced in attempting to participate in paid work, including benefits and taxes, childcare, and employment issues The final section summarises the key policy implications of the study which have been identified as critical issues warranting further attention or action. These include lone parents’ anxiety (a key issue, to which all the others are related), reducing disincentives to employment, subsidising the costs of childcare and training, and the availability of employment opportunities.