The UK Government have recently announced plans to encourage single parents to return to work as soon as possible, igniting a heated debate about what appears to be a policy u-turn.  Under the Tony Blair regime single parents were encouraged to stay at home with their children up until the age of sixteen, when they should then make themselves available for work.  Has this all changed?

Under changes which will come into play from 2010, single parents will need to make themselves available for employment once their children reach the age of seven (there are plans to reduce the age to twelve from 2008).  A failure to actively seek work may well effect their benefit payments, a strategy which has been criticised by many.  While there is no doubt that certain areas of the benefits system are open to abuse, is this a plausible solution?

The problem for many single parents seems to be childcare, or the lack of a viable affordable system in the UK at present.  Despite numerous attempts to kick start the childcare sector, even local authority run services are often out of the price range of many single parent families.  Again it looks as though employers may be asked to bear the majority of the financial burden for improvements to the childcare system. Unfortunately, while many talk the talk, few often walk the walk with work based childcare services few and far between.

Lets hope that the new government initiative does actually deliver results, but there are many who have major doubts even before the system has been introduced.