- Flexible working should be a day-one right and the Government needs to help employers to provide flexible jobs and recruit single parents.
- Childcare must be more affordable, particularly for single parents, costing a household no more than 5% of their income.
- Back to work support including specialist coaches for single parents, particularly helping to find flexible roles.
- Cost of living crisis support targeted at single parents in a way that helps them stay or progress in work.
Full report:
https://www.gingerbread.org.uk/policy-campaigns/publications-index/the-single-parent-employment-challenge-report
Paddy Lillis - Usdaw General Secretary says: “We welcome this report from Gingerbread, which throws a spotlight on the much higher underemployment rates of single parents. Around a quarter of our members with children are single parents, the majority of them women, and we know that most want to access and progress in work. However, single parents are much more likely to be working part-time because of the barriers they face.
“The lack of affordable childcare is a huge challenge in balancing work with parental responsibilities. Tory inaction means many low-income parents simply cannot afford formal childcare and we have called on the Chancellor to address this in next month’s Budget, including the funding of breakfast clubs in every primary school. We also need urgent and wide-ranging reform of Universal Credit, particularly the removal of upfront childcare costs for claimants and uprating the childcare cost caps.
“Workers need urgent and substantial reform to address the long-running childcare challenge. The cost of living crisis has been particularly difficult for families with children, who are less able to cushion the impact of the rise in prices, squeeze on wages and cuts to social security benefits. We welcome Labour’s commitment to a new system to give children the best start in life and parental choice, including introducing breakfast clubs in every primary school in England. This will enable parents to get back into work or to increase their hours, giving our economy the growth we need.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades.
Gingerbread is the leading national charity working with single parent families. Since 1918, they have been supporting, advising, and campaigning with single parents to help them meet the needs of their families and achieve their goals.
Usdaw’s Budget Submission: www.usdaw.org.uk/Budget2023
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
@UsdawUnion