About this site
Single parents need holistic support.
As soon as my son turned 3 and I was moved to Universal Credit's Intensive Work Search group, I started dreaming of a way I could gather other parents' knowledge and experiences to educate Job Centre coaches, outsourced employment advisors, and decision-makers. Using lived experience and research, I outline some of the issues and invite parents and professionals to add their thoughts and experiences. I will then compile the findings to inform professionals.
About me
I am a single mum to a preschooler, a children's social worker (Social Work Postgraduate Dip), editor, and writer. I am self-employed which gives me flexible working hours (read: post-midnight ones). When my son turned three, I, like most parents in my position, was put into the Job Centre's 'Intensive Work Search Group' category of applicants. It was stressful from the start - weekly appointments with different work coaches each time - each of them telling me I needed to work and none of them listening to me about my individual circumstances. It felt like they were reading from a script, with no scope to understand me or build rapport. I felt disempowered and upset.
When I started talking to friends with the same age children on Universal Credit, I found out that how I was treated and feeling was the norm. We all felt stressed, anxious, and disbelieved. We shared how we felt after Job Centre appointments - at best, frustrated that they had been a waste of time, and, at worst, feeling that we were being punished.
I found out that neither Job Centre coaches nor ReStart employment advisors receive training on working with lone parents, and it shows. However, our collective lived experience is powerful and we can use it to inform professionals and policy makers on how conditionality impacts our lives and that of our children. If you are one of these professionals I would also be really interested to hear your thoughts - your perspective is unique and crucial. My hope is for those working with single parents to try to understand and emphasise with what single parents go through.
What I'm calling for
Make single parenthood a protected characteristic
Single parent families face discrimination from the government, media, workplaces, education settings and businesses in anything from policy decisions to holiday companies denying free child places for one-parent families. There are nine protected characteristics in the UK; single parenthood needs to become the tenth
Job centre conditionality for parents of preschoolers must end
Expecting a single parent with a child under five to attend weekly appointments and look for work for 30 hours a week or be in work for the same amount of time is a punitive policy.
Implementation of single parent training for employment advisors
The stress of conditionality, sanctions, and the five-week wait causes measurable harm. Work coaches are not therapists — but they are often the only professional a parent in crisis sees. That cannot continue without proper training and referral pathways.
Absent parents must be held to account
The system places almost all of its demands on the parent who stayed. The parent who left faces almost none. That asymmetry is a policy choice, and it is one we should be far angrier about.
What I stand for
The principles that shape everything I publish.
Lived experience is the evidence
There are many different parts to single parenting - this project attempts to collect the various pieces, not just the ones the Job Centre - government - focuses on.
Care work is real work
Raising little people is demanding, essential and 24-7, especially for single parents. The fact that it is unpaid does not make it less valuable.
Advocacy rather than information
There are many sites with support for single parents so it would be silly and unnecessary for me to duplicate this information. There are also plenty of campaigns on childcare and flexible working. I'm keen to identify how Universal Credit conditionality impacts single parents in other areas that are often difficult to identify.
Deadlines, stress and the rest - please share your views.
If you are a Job Centre advisor, employment consultant or DWP civil servant, I can imagine that deadlines, targets and lack of support or training have an impact on the way you do your job or your thoughts about it. Please feel free to share your thoughts and I will incorporate them.