Single Parents, Universal Credit and the Struggle to Make Work Pay

Gingerbread has published a major academic report that looks at the impact on single parent families of the government’s flagship welfare programme, universal credit. Far from achieving the reform’s stated goal of “making work pay”, many single parents could actually lose out in cash terms under the new system. The research suggests that for many single parents, work still won’t pay under universal credit. In particular it finds that:

·      As a group, single parents face a real-terms cash loss under universal credit

·      Universal credit does achieve one of its aims: single parents who aren’t working will be better off if they move into work than is currently the case

·      But of all household types, working single parents are the worst affected when it comes to benefitting from working more hours, meaning many families will be trapped in low hours, low paid jobs.

Download a copy of the report from the Gingerbread website.