§ 16. Caroline Flint (Don Valley)What his Department has done to help reduce the barriers to work faced by lone parents. [115880]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security (Angela Eagle)We are tackling the barriers to work for lone parents with a raft of measures, including the new deal for lone parents and the working families tax credit. The Budget announced still more help for lone parents. For example, from April 2001 all lone parents working 16 hours a week or more will receive at least £155. They will receive £214 if they work more than 35 hours.
§ Caroline FlintI welcome the opportunity for lone parents to keep their benefits for four weeks during their transition to work. Will my hon. Friend explain how changes in housing benefit will assist lone parents in that transition? Will she also look into the ending of the top-up allowance pilot? It affects a number of my constituents, some of whom are lone parents. When it ends, they may be back on benefit, especially if they have taken up part-time work.
§ Angela EagleThe housing benefit run-on announced, and made automatic, in the Budget statement will guarantee that anyone who ceases to depend on benefits and takes up work can receive housing benefit for the month in question before receiving his or her first wage. We know that the transition from benefits to work, and the gaps that must be filled, lead many people to believe that they cannot make such a transition. It is therefore important for us to produce welfare-to-work measures to reassure those people that it is possible for them to return to work, and that we will remove the barriers so that they can become independent again.
§ Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East)Does the Minister accept that, according to figures from her own Department, fewer than 6 per cent. of lone parents invited to join the scheme have secured employment as a result? Does she regard that as a success or a failure?
§ Angela EagleWe consider the new deal for lone parents a success. Some 41,000 lone parents are now in work who would not have been if it had not existed.
The hon. Gentleman's party abandoned lone parents. It left them no way of obtaining work, and gave them no extra help. It just lectured them about having children and being on their own. We are offering real help and support for people who want to return to work, as part of our crusade to tackle child poverty. The only way in which we can eliminate child poverty, as the Prime Minister wishes us to do within 20 years, is to help the parents too—and that includes lone parents.