Single Parent Families (Hansard, 9 December 1996)

§ The Minister of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish)
My Lords, the Government continue to be concerned about the growth in the number of lone parents and the reasons behind this growth. Many lone parents are less well off because they do not work, and the Government have substantially enhanced in-work benefits to help lone parents take up jobs and improve their standards of living. This, together with ensuring that both parents take responsibility for children and that maintenance is properly paid, is seen as the best approach to helping lone parents.

§ Lord Ashley of Stoke
My Lords, I am grateful for that Answer. Is the Minister aware that the freezing of the benefits and premiums for single parents and the merging of them into child benefits and family premiums will result in a loss of some £270 million for those very vulnerable families? Does he agree that the Government's excuse that they are seeking equal treatment for single and two-parent families is feeble? We cannot have equal treatment when one parent is doing the job of two. Is it not right that the real reason for the manoeuvre is to help with tax-cutting stunts for the general election?

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, I am afraid that I cannot agree with the noble Lord, Lord Ashley. Our strategy is that we should move to an even-handed approach between one and two parent families. The majority of people in this country will think that that is quite right. Research has shown that the only substantial extra expense which lone parents have is the cost of childcare. Of course, that comes into play only when the lone parent goes back into work. That is why we have improved help in relation to childcare in the family credit benefit.

§ Lord Gisborough
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that the plight of some single parent families is exacerbated by fines which they receive in court; for example, very often for having no television licence? Some of those people who are fined have to be sent to prison or some other place of correction because they do not or cannot pay those fines. Has my noble friend 868 considered the possibility of D-I-Y punishments in the home for such cases so that people are punished but are not sent to prison?

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, I am not sure that those matters are not addressed to the wrong Lord Mackay! However, it is the Government's policy to try to keep mothers out of prison so far as that is humanly possible. In relation to fine default, there is provision to take instalments from weekly benefits in order to pay those fines as a sensible alternative to sending a person to prison, which we all agree is not the best option in those circumstances.

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, will the Minister tell the House exactly what assessment was made by the Government of the impact of the Budget measures on the welfare of children being brought up by single parents? He tells us that the Government intend to be even-handed; but is it not correct that the children of single parents run a far greater risk—something like four times the risk—of being brought up in poverty than those being brought up by two parents? In the light of that, how can the Government justify taking away financial support from those children and thus ensuring that they live in even deeper poverty?

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, the situation is that in certain circumstances the single parent can be receiving more income than a married couple with one child. I do not believe that that is correct. That is sending the wrong signals that somehow or other we are prepared to give more to single parents. An even-handed approach is right and proper. As I mentioned, the real problem for many lone parents in this country, unlike their colleagues in other countries, is that they do not work. Through family credit and the new pilot project, Parent Plus, we have attempted to find ways to increase the number of lone parents in work and provide for their own children.

§ Earl Russell
My Lords, can the Minister name any other country from biblical Israel to the present day which practices the even-handed principle which he is now recommending?

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, not being an historian, I really could not tell the noble Earl. He is probably in a better position to know that than I am. But I know that it is a simple fact that compared with most of our colleagues in the European Union, and indeed in the United States, far fewer lone parents in this country seem to think that they ought to work. We believe that by improving family credit and introducing the piloting of Parent Plus, we can encourage lone parents into work which will improve their standard of living.

§ Baroness Hollis of Heigham
My Lords, does the Minister not accept that 4 per cent. of two parent families live on less than £100 per week, but nearly 50 per cent.—half—of lone parent families live on less than £100 a week? They and their children are 869 desperately poor. As the Minister said—and I am sure he is right about that—only opportunities to work will float them off benefit and out of poverty. In that case, why did the Government propose in the Budget to abolish the one lone parent benefit which, because it is not means-tested, actually encourages lone parents into work? Why do the Government persistently denounce lone parents for living on benefit and then, through the Budget, seek to trap them on benefits?

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, I have not denounced lone parents for living on benefits. I said that it is a fact that one of the reasons that many of them are in the bottom half of income distribution is that they do not work. That is a simple fact. I dispute the noble Baroness's concept that all lone parents live in poverty because her definition of poverty and mine is probably very different. It is quite difficult to define poverty. But if they do live in poverty, would it not be nice to hear from the noble Baroness some kind of figure as a promise from the party opposite as to what they might spend on the problem? We see this as a problem which should be approached with even-handedness. After all, if there are two parents with one child, that is three mouths to feed, whereas one parent with one child is two mouths to feed. Therefore, inevitably, there may be a difference in income.

§ Baroness Hollis of Heigham
My Lords, why does the Minister not answer the question? The Government profess to say that they are anxious to encourage lone parents into work. In that case, why in the Budget did they propose to abolish the one benefit which lone parents can take with them into work and which is therefore an incentive for them to go into work?

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, I am not entirely sure what the noble Baroness is alluding to; but we are attempting to make sure that anybody with a lone parent premium now who moves into work will not lose the one parent benefit during that move. It will be a very slow transfer, and only those coming into lone parenthood and benefit in the future will not receive the benefits which are available at present, which are greater than the benefits received by two parents. However, it is interesting to note that during the past two or three years we have seen something like 200,000 lone parents going into work thanks to family credit, which is proving extremely successful in that regard.

§ Lord Ashley of Stoke
My Lords, is the Minister aware that I am surprised that that measure is going through? I thought that the Government were far too busy cutting the pensions of ex-servicemen to find time to cut the income of single parent families.

§ Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish
My Lords, I expected more of the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, although I am not surprised because he probably took the distorted view of his Leader. We have no intention to cut, and we are not cutting a single penny from a single war pensioner. I am happy to have been given the 870 opportunity by the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, to make that absolutely clear. I hope that he will communicate that to his Leader in the other place, who seems incapable of reading the letters which I send from my department.