Lone parents benefits cut.

[carernotasaint]

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/20/lone-parents-benefit-cuts?cat=politics&type=article

It's nothing new though.... All lone parents have 6 monthly meetings at the jobcentre where this is retold. We all know the score.

It is worrying though. I am working at the moment but when I last lost my job it took me a while to find another. I'm now in my late 40's so if I lose my job again (which is a possibility) I may never find another job. I also work freelance but don't always get paid - If I spend time and money doing research and presentations then client decide they don't want my services it can end up costing me - then if DWP don't believe I have tried hard enough they can stop my tax credits?

I remember the last Tory witch hunt for single parents back in the 80's - I was young free and single back then but still felt single parents were unfairly treated. Hate the Tories - and only 30% of the voters voted for them so seems unfair they still manage to put policies like this through!

if this only affects people who make no effort to find jobs i can't see what the problem is. I don't see why i have to work my guts and pay for someone else to stay at home because they don't want to work.

No it doesn't

It makes lone parents seek work... You can only be a sahm if you have a partner working to support you and pay for you/dc/roof. A lone parent will now have to seek work the second the youngest dc starts school.

What's so wrong with that?

Yes, what's wrong with that?

What is wrong with that is as a lone parent it is usually a lot harder to get a job and if your children are sick and you need to take time off to look after first one sick child and then another you tend to find that the job doesn't last very long.

The Daily Mail myth that lone parents sit on their backsides watching Jeremy Kyle is far from the truth as far as I am aware. All the single parents I know work - the last thing a SP needs is more pressure to find a job or lose benefits when the discrimination out there prevents SP finding a job - not the fact they don't want to work.

I work three jobs - I'm a teaching asst, a writer and a window dresser - I start work at 6 am and I'm working now - just having a little break as I have writers block! (I'll get off to bed in half an hour) My TA job looks like it won't last much longer - may not have a job next term - and as I'm now in my late 40's I might have trouble finding another as my age is against me and as SP that too is against me. As with most things a few bad apples give the rest a bad name and we all have to suffer the consequences!

Harder to find work does not mean a LP shouldn't look. I was a resident parent for nearly a decade (now with a new partner) so I know all too well that it's harder.

But like you Tyga I worked and so do many other single parents I know.

There's nothing new here and the intention was always to compel lone parents back to work once their youngest child had reached school age. It started years ago with Labour and has just been carried on by the current govt. They announced this in the first emergency budget. To say there's been no warning is simply untrue.

It is harder to get a job, but it's not impossible. I did it and I know plenty of others that did it too.

They're not saying lone parents have to work or they get nothing. They are saying that lone parents would be obliged to try to find work that still enables them to care for their children. If they can't find it after properly trying to the fair enough, but if they are made to look and then do find work then brilliant. They aren't completely reliant on benefits anymore.

How can that not be a good thing?