APPENDIX 24
Memorandum by the National Council for
One Parent Families
Executive Summary
The Idea of a Gateway
The idea of a single gateway to benefits is a good
one, aiming as it does to simplify access to the benefits system
for the often bemused claimant. However, introducing a compulsory,
work-focused interview as a precursor to any major benefit claim
is an unwise move which may prove counterproductive. Research
shows that most lone parents wish to work when their circumstances
make it possible to combine this with the demands of being the
sole full-time parent. The National Council for One Parent Families
spent years devising initiatives to help lone parents into work,
long before government started to do so. That experience, supported
by a significant body of research, demonstrates that there are
a number of serious barriers to lone parents working. Since the
problem is rarely simply one of disinclination, the best way to
increase lone participation in the labour force is to assist them
in overcoming those barriers, the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP)
has made a good start in this respect but we are concerned that
the Single Gateway could serve to undermine the NDLP by creating
mistrust in those it seeks to serve. When the Gateway was announced,
many lone parents called our helpline, fearful that the New Deal
was being changed to force them into work. We could only reassure
the ones who called us.
Rights and Responsibilities
The Single Gateway is underpinned by the ethos of
"rights and responsibilities". The unemployed citizen
wishing to claim benefits has the right to the help the Gateway
can offer but has in return a responsibility to do all he or she
can to become economically independent. In other words, there
is a moral imperative to seek paid work. However, one must question
how this applies to lone parents. Is it the government's view
that any lone parent on benefit has a moral obligation to get
out to work, even if no legal obligation exists? Does this apply
irrespective of circumstances or the age of their children? Although
we believe strongly in helping lone parents into work when they
are ready for it, their first priority is to be good parents and
there are times when it is impossible to combine this with paid
work. Very few people set out to be lone parents. Two thirds of
lone parents were married and most of the rest were cohabiting
at the birth of their child. Typically lone parents do not remain
on benefit for a lifetime but they should be entitled to make
a claim when a major life event has befallen them, without being
made to feel guilty for being temporarily out of the workforce.
If the government pushes (even by exhortation) all lone parents
towards paid work they will be sending the message that paid work
is more important than their role as parents. At a time when the
government is promoting the importance of parenting, this would
be regrettable.
Timing is Everything
In the Single Gateway, new claimants must have a
work-focused interview within three days of making a benefit claim.
While this urgency may have merit if a claimant (including a lone
parent) has just lost his or her job, it is rather less useful
if the claim has arisen because the person has just become a lone
parent All routes into lone parenthood—childbirth, divorce,
separation and bereavement—are intrinsically traumatic.
If a woman gets home one day to find that her husband or partner
has left her, her life has changed forever. Her priority will
be to get some money to feed her children that week and she is
unlikely to be in the most productive mindset for a chat with
a well-meaning official about how quickly she can become economically
active again. Although the advisors will be able to delay a work-focused
interview, this is entirely at their discretion and the lone parent
has no right to a deferral, except possibly in cases of bereavement.
Even if only a tiny number of inappropriate decisions are made,
that will still leave a number of new lone parents without enough
money to look after their children. We strongly recommend that
nobody be forced into such an interview within three months of
becoming a lone parent.
1. #Introduction—Campaigning for 80 years
Since 1918, the National Council for One Parent
Families (NCOPF) has been a unique national centre of expertise
on lone parenthood. Throughout out history, the organisation has
been dedicated to campaigning for equality of opportunity for
one parent families and tackling the exclusion, poverty and prejudice
they so often face. There are currently about 1.7 million lone
parents in the UK today who care for approaching three million
children.1 It is estimated that by the turn of the
century, at any one point in time, nearly a quarter of children
will live with just one of their parents and between a third and
a half will experience life in a one parent family before they
reach adulthood. Nine out of ten lone parents are women.
We welcome the opportunity to comment on the issues
under consideration by the Committee. We have sought to set out
some background information about lone parents in the Annex to
this memorandum, their relationship to work and government schemes,
their qualifications and the barriers they face in being active
outside the home. Here, we consider the Single Gateway proposals
and make some policy recommendations.
2. #The Gateway to Work—Scope and Objectives
The single gateway was described in the government
consultation paper as a way of making the welfare system "more
focused on helping people to become independent, rather than locking
them into dependency"2 and as a "far-reaching
modernisation of the welfare system". Essentially, the Government
proposes a single point of contact with the Employment Service,
the Benefits Agency and other benefit providers brought together
by a personal adviser to guide people through the options. The
personal adviser will "help them plan a route back to independence,
while also ensuring that they receive the benefits to which they
are entitled". Modern technology will be used, including
the use of call-centres, to speed up the process and increase
efficiency. Two five month pilot periods are to take place beginning
in June and November 1999 respectively and sometime after April
2000 new legislation will be implemented to make it a condition
of receiving benefit to attend a "work-focused interview".
According to the government, new culture is envisaged
"which puts work first" and "means a fundamental
shift away from merely asking 'what money can we pay you?' to
'How can we help you become more independent"'.3
"rather than categorising a person as 'unemployed', 'lone
parent' or 'disabled', we will treat each claimant as an individual,
taking account of their own particular circumstances and needs."
The idea is to move to "a more streamlined and efficient
system in which there is a single point of access to welfare,
and in which everyone who has the potential to work is provided
with help to find it" and to prevent people from becoming
"resigned to a lifetime on benefit".
For the National Council for One Parent Families,
concern arises principally from the introduction of the compulsory
work-focused interview, from the negative effect this may have
on the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP), despite its promising
start, and from the signals given that the gateway may result
in the loss of a specialist scheme for lone parents to be replaced
by a "one size fits all" approach. We examine first
what the single gateway has to offer and the effect on the NDLP.
Second, the work-focused interview itself and third we look at
general issues about implementation and development of the scheme.
2.1. What does the Single Work-focused Gateway
offer?
The general idea of a single gateway to benefits
is a good one as it aims to bring together different government
departments at the beginning of a benefit claim. The controversial
area for us is the introduction of a compulsory interview. In
our view the compulsory nature of the work focused interview risks
jeopardising the New Deal for Lone Parents (NDLP).
We have been pleased, in general, with the progress
of the NDLP although we have some concerns about the lack of focus
on the longer-term objectives of improving income beyond low-paid
work. In our view this is best achieved by placing more emphasis
and investment in education and training and on job training,
placements, on voluntary work and mentoring schemes. We are also
aware of the significant barriers lone parents face when returning
to work. These concerns were explored in some detail before the
Education and Employment Committee last year as part of their
Inquiry into "Pathways Into Work for Lone Parents".
A copy of our submission is enclosed. We support many of the recommendations
of the Report from that Inquiry. We believe that the NDLP, with
all its faults has the makings of a very useful scheme.
By contrast, the Single Work-Focused Gateway (SWFG)
proposal places the emphasis on the point of entry into the benefits
system, on a compulsory first interview and introduces the possibility
of repeat compulsory interviews triggered by key stages in the
youngest child's school career (at age five and 11). Although
no lone parent will be expected to take a job as a result of a
work-focused interview, many are concerned that it does mean this,
or believe that it makes the NDLP compulsory. We are concerned
about this because we believe that there has not yet been any
evaluation of the NDLP scheme. In the meantime promising results
are being seen as a failure.
The most recent New Deal figures show that although
under a third of lone parents who received an invitation letter
responded, three-quarters attended the interview.4
More significantly, 83 per cent of those who attended an interview
agreed to participate in the scheme. In other words those lone
parents who went along to find out what it was like were impressed
by the quality of personal advisers and were happy to participate
in the scheme. This backs up the impression we have gained from
talking to lone parents. Only 17.5 per cent of participants got
a job. But this may reflect the availability of jobs, training
and childcare places. We also think that it is right that the
emphasis of the NDLP should not solely be on obtaining work. Training,
education and planning the future are all equally valuable services
to provide.
We anticipate that in time the word will spread around
that NDLP is a useful service although further publicity will
be necessary. The Government will argue that part of the purpose
of the SWFG is precisely this—to require everyone to attend
an interview, so that the same effect or "wow factor"
will spread to more lone parents. However, we doubt that this
will be the result. Instead, participation will be seen as part
of a compulsory benefits regime and many will continue to avoid
the NDLP or equivalent scheme. Also, the interview will be with
a generalist adviser who may or may not have expertise in the
needs and concerns of lone parents.
Lone parents do not typically remain on benefit for
a lifetime, but they do tend to remain poor and this continues
into old age due to the difficulty of saving for old age and inadequate
pension provision. In Appendix One we explore briefly the difficulties
surrounding paid work for lone parents and the reasons why many
lone parents who wish to work find themselves staying on benefits
for longer than they might wish. Other lone parents are convinced
of the importance of staying at home with their children for a
variety of reasons, including the effects of separation from the
child(ren)'s other parent. Lone parents are not a homogenous group
and each has his or her own view of the ideal balance between
home and work.
We think the decision to prioritise unpaid caring
work should remain the decision of the lone parent and it is not
the place of Government to substitute its own judgement for that
of the caring parent. Many lone parents report to us that they
feel pressurised by the repeated public statements about the importance
of paid work and feel undervalued as a result. For them compulsion
to work seems around the corner even though this is not the policy
proposed.
One lone parent writes to NCOPF: "Frankly I
am appalled at the government's strategy for lone parents. I have
a strong feeling of being victimised... I agree that women who
wish to work should be helped to do so, and childcare/benefits
will help many lone parents—but there is a distinct feeling
of impending compulsion however carefully the government may word
their literature. I strongly object to any kind of compulsion."
Another says: "Parenting work and the long hours
that lone parents do are never credited or taken into account...
paid work outside home [is] always valued higher than parenting.
Emphasis or pressure is always directed at parents with care (e.g.
New Deal etc.); absent parent frowned upon but doesn't get targeted
as much."
One remarked that she had already been to the New
Deal "before compulsion" signalling what many lone parents
already believe which is that the single gateway makes the NDLP
compulsory. In other words, we have good reason to believe therefore
that the SWFG risks jeopardising lone parents' confidence in the
NDLP.
4.0 The Work-focused Interview
"We will treat people as individuals, rather
than categorise them as "unemployed", "lone parent"
or "disabled"—labels that tend to stick permanently
and do nothing to help individuals focus on how they can become
independent through work." (DfEE/DSS, A New Contract for
Welfare: The Gateway to Work, Cm 4102.p3)
The first stage of the SWFG will be the Registration
and Orientation stage where claim forms will be issued and basic
information provided. This is followed by the "work-focused
interview with a personal adviser. There is then the option of
further or follow-up interviews with this adviser. It is the Registration
and Orientation Officer (RO) who will make a judgement about whether
or not a discussion about work at this stage would be inappropriate
or insensitive. Lone parents with very young children are given
as an example. Depending on this judgement, an interview will
be arranged, usually within three days.
If work is not considered a practical option in the
shorter term, "the priority will be to resolve their immediate
financial needs by establishing and paying the benefit to which
they are entitled and identifying welfare needs"5.
However, it is suggested that they will also "explore the
alternatives to benefit", though it is not clear what they
have in mind. The personal adviser assigned at this stage will
follow up the question of future labour market participation "once
circumstances have settled down". Thus a lone parent with
a new baby or an older woman out of touch with the labour market
will be asked to plan for a resumption of work in the future if
not immediately. The personal adviser will provide personalised
calculations presumably of projected in-work income and draw up
a tailor-make plan of steps. Contact will continue if someone
moves into work.
A question arises immediately about the future role
of NDLP. Will it continue in its current form as a referral point
for lone parents or will all its functions be subsumed into the
SWFG? Presumably we will learn more after the pilots have taken
place the results of which we await with interest and concern.
We are also worried about the excessive administrative burden
being placed at the beginning of a claim. Lone parents are currently
required to have new claims visits from the Benefits Agency to
check their benefit claim and also to deal with child maintenance
applications to the CSA. This may involve an intensely personal
"good cause" interview to establish whether or not s/he
is exempt from applying for maintenance in those cases where the
lone parent feels she or her children are at risk of harm or undue
distress. It is going to be possible to carry out this degree
of intervention and conduct SWFG interviews? If the two processes
are to be rolled into one, where is one to find generalist ROs
or personal advisers who will be equipped to deal with benefits,
return to work, sensitive personal interviewing about child maintenance
and have knowledge of return to work and labour market issues
at the kind of salaries and Employment Service will be able to
pay?
The Lone Parent Prototype scheme which has been piloting
and integrated benefit service has already taken place in Camden
and Lewisham and has shed some more light on this potential problem.
The Lone Parent Prototype found that customers had reservations
about an integrated service involving CSA issues. This was because
of the negative associations most people had about the CSA, the
intrusive nature of the questioning, the wish to avoid discussing
painful and sensitive issues when putting in a claim for IS and
the need for more time to reflect on these questions and how to
answer them.6 Some lone parents felt they had been
forced into making a CSA application, others felt very strongly
that such personal information should on no account be made available
to anyone who did not need it. Still others were concerned that
it would delay the payment of benefit. This gives us a sound basis
on which to urge caution about the burden placed on the SWFG and
on the time scale proposed for the whole process.
Ultimately, we are concerned at the Government proposal
to include lone parents in compulsory work interviews. We think
that the Government should withdraw plans to target lone parents
when they first claim benefit since this is usually a crisis point.
Few lone parents claim benefits after losing a job, more often
it follows the trauma of divorce, separation or desertion, leaving
a violent partner, the birth of a child or bereavement. In any
event, lone parents need time to recover and to prioritise the
needs of their (equally traumatised) children. They need to claim
benefit speedily in order to feed and protect them.
Most lone parents want to work at some point and
the voluntary New Deal for Lone Parents has had a promising start.
Introducing compulsory work interviews now risks jeopardising
lone parents' confidence in the scheme Government must tread very
carefully if it is to ensure that the best of the New Deal is
not lost.
4.1 The Welfare Reform Bill—Clause 47
Clause 47 gives the Secretary of State regulation-making
powers to impose a requirement to take part in a "work-focused
interview" as a condition of receiving benefit and in certain
circumstances as a condition of continuing to receive the full
amount. This interview applies to anyone claiming income support,
housing benefit, council tax benefit, widows benefits, incapacity
benefit, severe disablement allowance and invalid care allowance
(sub-section 2). Failure to attend means that a lone parent will
be treated as if they have not made a benefit claim while failure
to attend any subsequent interview will result in a benefit reduction
(Clause 47. New Section 2A(1) & (4)).
Recent Government amendments to the Bill have made
the regime harsher by clarifying that the claim of someone who
fails to take part in a deferred interview will be terminated
and will be reinstated only on the receipt of a new claim7.
Where benefits are already in payment any reduction in benefit
will apply until a lone parent participates in an interview, at
which point the normal rate of benefit will be restored. However,
any benefit lost in the interim will not be refunded. Also, any
claimant who fails to attend an interview at the point of claim
will be prevented from making more than one new claim for benefit
in the same calendar year. Assurance was given that termination
of benefit would only follow three refusals to attend and until
after a home visit has been made. The requirement, of course,
is to turn up to an interview and not to take paid work.
Regulations made under sub-section (3) will prescribe
who will carry out the interviews and the powers they will have
to decide when and where they should take place, including home
visits, and to decide when someone has satisfied these requirements.
There will also be rules to decide whether or not a claimant has
good cause for failing to attend an interview and what matters
or circumstances can be taken into account in deciding this. Regulations
will also ensure that one interview will suffice if claiming more
than one benefit.
Under sub-section (6) of the clause, the requirement
to attend can be waived or deferred or where it would not be appropriate
or helpful to attend. In these circumstances the claimant will
be treated as still entitled to benefit. There will also be a
right of appeal against any decision that s/he has not complied
or did not have good cause for failing to attend.
The National Council for One Parent Families will
be looking for clarification of the circumstances in which attendance
can be waived or deferred. Clear exemptions from the work focused
interview should at least be set out in regulations and guidance.
In addition and as a minimum, lone parents should have the right
to be exempted from compulsory work interviews for a period of
three months after they make a benefit claim. The Government should
also reassure lone parents that it will never force them to work
either directly or through repeated interviews at regular intervals.
5.0 Quality Issues
We are concerned that the focus in the Single Gateway
will be exclusively or predominantly on getting claimants back
to work in the short term. Many lone parents do wish to work but,
as explained above, immediate employment may not be the best solution
for them. Often a period of education or training will be necessary
to get lone parents to a point where they can secure jobs which
will pay enough to give them a reasonable prospect of leaving
the benefit system altogether. This is only appreciated, however,
by advisors who understand the position of lone parents and there
is a danger in an undifferentiated system that lone parents will
not receive the help they need and deserve. In a system as target-driven
as the Employment Service, there is also a real danger that lone
parents will be ignored in favour of other candidates—such
as those without dependants—who will be easier to get into
work. We are concerned, too, that a target-driven culture will
push lone parents into work too soon or help them into jobs which
are not sustainable alongside the caring responsibilities which
even the government would agree should always take precedence.
Our extensive experience of helping lone parents into employment
and training suggests that a lone parent who is pushed too soon
into a job which does not suit her circumstances will simply fall
out of work and be deterred from re-entering the labour market
for a long time.
We are also concerned about the ability of the Employment
Service to maintain the quality of advice and support to be offered
under the Single Gateway. The size of the SWFG undertaking is
so great that quality maintenance will be a major undertaking.
This is already an issue with the New Deal for Lone Parents but
it becomes much more serious where there is an element of compulsion
in place. If a lone parent has a bad experience with an advisor
and is thus deterred from returning for a subsequent interview,
under the SWFG she could find here benefit cut or cancelled. This
is therefore a much more serious issue which we remain to be reassured
about.
6.0 Evaluation
The importance of accurate, comprehensive but speedy
evaluation cannot be overstated. The experience of evaluation
of the early phases of the New Deal for Lone Parents does not
encourage us. It would be helpful if the evaluation of the pilots
could be completed in time to have an impact on the design of
the finished product. We would also recommend strongly that the
views of lone parents specifically be solicited in the evaluation
process. In doing so, we would point out that the pilots will
only be focused on new claimants. This will, therefore, distort
the findings in relation to lone parents since it will be focusing
on a group who have either just lost a job (making them arguably
more receptive to work-related advice than average) or who have
just become lone parents (making them arguably less so). Either
way, they are untypical.
7.0 Recommendations
A: Compulsion
1. Work-focused interviews should not be compulsory
since this change in emphasis will discourage many lone parents
from approaching the New Deal for Lone Patents (NDLP). Many already
(mistakenly) believe the NDLP to be compulsory and the seeming
confirmation of this in the Single Gateway proposals risks jeopardising
the success of the New deal project. If work-focused interviews
remain generally compulsory, new lone parents should be made exempt
from the requirement or at least granted an automatic three-month
deferral on request.
2. Regulations should prescribe groups and circumstances
when a Registration and Orientation Officer should decide that
an interview is not appropriate or where the claimant has "good
case" not to. Automatic exemption should be granted in these
circumstances. These arguably should include lone parents who
have recently experienced divorce, separation, the birth of a
child, bereavement, domestic violence, abuse to themselves or
any of the children living with them, where there is a child under
five or in need of particular care and attention, or where the
lone parent feels for other reasons that an interview would be
distressing and unhelpful. (Only one example is currently given
in the explanatory notes of the Welfare Reform Bill: recent bereavement.)
3. The Government should clarify further the circumstances
in which a requirement to attend a work-focused interview will
be imposed as a condition of receiving further benefit. Sufficient
warning should be given, at least three attempts should be made
to contact the person concerned and no penalty should be imposed
if there is good reason not to attend, a child in the household
or any of the above circumstances apply.
4. Warning periods need to be introduced if any benefit
sanction is to be applied. If such a sanction is imposed incorrectly,
or a parent was unable to attend for good reason or subsequently
complies, benefit should be re-instated or the claim processed
immediately.
5. Powers should be available to reduce or eliminate
any sanction in cases where it is likely to result in severe hardship.
6. The first contact to any single gateway office
or call centre should always be established as the date of claim
and benefit should be processed speedily regardless of how long
it takes to arrange an interview or home visit. For this reason
we would argue that in any event interviews for lone parents should
be deferred for three months as the benefit claim to support the
children is the top priority.
7. Repeat interviews should not take place at frequent
intervals or be used to repeatedly stress the importance of paid
work.
Design of the Single Gateway
8. The Single Gateway should avoid any emphasis on
targets or on simply reducing the numbers of lone parents claiming
benefits. Nor should targets concern merely getting lone parents
into low paid work.
9. The "agreed outputs" for voluntary sector
or private providers should not be driven by requirements or targets
to place a certain number or proportion of people in work. Outputs
should arguably include quality targets on benefit maximisation,
placement in voluntary work, training and education and should
reflect the assessment of service users.
10. A decision should be made about how work-focused
interviews are to fit in with the already heavy schedule for "new
claims visits". Most lone parent new claims already involve
a home visits to undergo benefit claim checking and in certain
cases to carry out a "good cause" interview if s/he
does not wish to apply for child maintenance.
11. Steps should be taken to ensure that lone parents
receive equal priority to participants in the New Deal for Young
People in access to vocational training provided by or funded
by the Employment Service or TECs.
12. Detailed monitoring and evaluation of each aspect
of the single gateway will be essential to form public confidence
in the scheme. This should include detail of the types of decisions
being taken by ROs and other staff.
13. Efforts should be made to encourage feedback
assessments from service users.
14. Lone parents should be advised that they are
not required to follow the advice of the Personal Adviser, the
benefit entitlement does not depend on following their advice
and that continued participation is voluntary.
15. The option of bringing a friend or adviser along
should be offered and information on sources of independent advice
and information should be provided.
16. Any travelling expenses incurred should be reimbursed.
17. Advice should be provided as part of an "entitlement
and opportunity culture" with positive information and advice
on offer, including benefits advice. Attempts to imply that receipt
of benefit is "dependency", or that caring for your
children at home is becoming "resigned to a lifetime on benefit"
is counter-productive. Assessing immediate income needs should
instead be the priority.
Relationship of the Gateway to the New Deal for
Lone Parents
18. The NDLP scheme should be retained as a specialist
service with strengthened education, employment options and voluntary
work options.
19. Personal Advisers and ROs should be trained to
offer detailed advice as to the financial implications of taking
paid work to include not just the benefit situation, but to take
account of the additional one-off costs of taking a job. These
include, for example, lump sums for: clothes, travel costs (e.g.
travel passes) lump sum retainer fees for childcare and up front
childcare payments.
20. The National Council For One Parent Families
has recommended to the Select Committee on Education and Employment
that steps should be taken to introduce a range of measures to
improve access to education and training and to provide improved
finances to enable a return to study for lone parents.8
In addition, we recommended that the New Deal for Lone Parents
could be expanded to include more education and employment options
and provide greater direct assistance with the associated expenses.
The role of Advisers
21. Extensive training will be needed for Registration
and Orientation Officers (ROs) and for Personal Advisers, both
in the exercising of their powers and in recognising the needs
and circumstances of lone parents, the emotional needs following
on from relationship breakdown and in relation to the barriers
to paid employment such as housing costs and childcare, education
and training needs.
22. Help should be offered with travel to the office
to attend an interview, if an interview is to be arranged at home
then a time suitable to the needs of children and caring responsibilities
should be established. The availability of child-friendly and
accessible office environments should be investigated.
23. Advisers should be directed to encourage lone
parents to consider education and training options alongside employment,
particularly where their lack of qualifications and/or work experience
is likely to make it difficult for them to obtain any but the
most low-paid work.
24. In any advice given, proper account should be
taken of additional in-work expenditure in any assessment of proposed
income from work. Such costs need to be deducted from wages and
benefits and include additional rent and council tax not covered
by HB and CTB, increased childcare costs (including the 30 per
cent not covered by the childcare tax credit), travel to work
costs, school meals, clothing and meals at work.
25. Fast-tracking of the Working Families' Tax Credit
and child maintenance payments should be offered as should advice
on continuing Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Income
Support for the first weeks in paid work.
26. The CTC should be extended to lone parents in
education and training.
27. Strenuous efforts should be made to ensure that
Personal Advisors operate within a long-term perspective which
emphasises the importance of education and training; including
education at vocational, Further and Higher Education levels.
NVQ Level 2 should not be the ceiling.
28. Particular attention should be paid to the recommendations
of the Education and Employment Committee Report, Pathways Into
Work for Lone Parents, Seventh Report, Session 1997/98, July 1998
which made a number of very helpful recommendations.
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