In its first 18 months, the Child Support Agency (CSA) had only a small impact on Britain's lone parent families. But it has great potential to improve their lives, a new national survey from the independent Policy Studies Institute has shown.
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This is because getting maintenance payments increasingly helps lone parents work, particularly those with few qualifications or experience. By combining work, Family Credit and maintenance payments, lone parents could be 60 per cent better off than the majority who remained on Income Support.
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The survey, Lone Parents, Work and Benefits, also gives a more detailed portrait of lone parents' lives, challenging many common beliefs. The majority were formerly married and nearly all had had their children with just one partner. Violence had been widespread: 4 out of 10 had experienced violence in their last year as a couple, three quarters of whom said they had been injured. Such violence, however, did not discourage their co-operation with the CSA.
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| Among the key findings - |
| About maintenance payments and the CSA: |
- Half of lone parents recalled any contact with the CSA and 15 per cent had had an assessment.
- Compared to earlier surveys between 1989 and 1993, the proportion receiving any maintenance payments remained unchanged at 30 per cent.
- The amounts paid had risen, averaging £39 a week overall and £64 for CSA orders.
- Only half this money is discounted against benefits.
- Half thought they should get more, though some with CSA orders felt too much was asked.
- On first contact, lone parents were evenly divided about the CSA ‘taking up their case' but later developed a more jaundiced view.
- Anxieties centred around the potential for renewed friction with former partners, but a substantial minority were glad of the new money.
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| About lone parents' lives: |
- Only 3 in ten had full-time jobs and half of these were supported in work by Family Credit.
- Getting maintenance payments significantly improved lone parents' chances of getting paid work independently of all other factors.
- The majority remained on Income Support and experienced high risks of material hardship, debt and poor health.
- ‘Serial lone parenthood' was rare: 87 per cent had had their children with one partner, usually their former husband. A fifth, though, had never lived with a partner.
- Most valued their independence and half expected to remain alone.
- About a fifth hoped to have more children sometime but almost all of these said they wanted a new marriage too.
- More than a third said that arguments during the last year of their relationship had ‘...led to physical violence.' Of these, three quarters (27 per cent of all those with former partners) said they had been injured. A third of those naming two partners said they had been injured by both.
- This violence did not discourage cooperation with the CSA; if anything, the opposite may be true.
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| One of the authors of the report, Dr. Alan Marsh, said: ‘Lone parents on Income Support have few choices and face growing risks of hardship. They would prefer to work but they know that earnings alone will not help them enough. They have to combine income from work, benefits and maintenance payments. More than anything, getting maintenance for a lone mother restores her choices. When she is ready, she can work. If the CSA can substantially raise the proportion of lone parents getting even quite small maintenance payments, it could transform their lives, their opportunities and their family welfare.' |
