At the very heart of the new Government’s legislative package are a number of items that will affect lone parents.
- 30 hours a week free childcare for the three and four-year-old children of working parents arriving in 2017 will dramatically increase lone parent availability for work.
- Tax free childcare for working parents is a first for the UK and will make it more affordable for those not receiveing support, including those with older children.
- The reduction of the Welfare Benefit Cap to £23,000 a year will have a big effect on larger families and those living in in areas of high rent, like London.
An Employment Bill will be “fast tracked” through the Commons and IDS is staying on at DWP to take it through, with the support of new Employment Minister Priti Patel MP, who replaces the defeated Esther McVey. David Cameron has said that he wants Britain to have full employment, which he defines as Britain having the highest percentage of people in work of any developed nation”
With all this in place, my prediction for the end of the Parliament is that Lone Parents will need to be actively seeking work by the time their youngest child is three.