Lone Mothers, Ethnicity and Welfare Dynamics

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA MOKHTAR ◽  
LUCINDA PLATT
Keyword(s):  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Welfare Dependency ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
Policy Concern ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Minority Ethnic

AbstractThis article investigates the ethnic patterning of exit from means-tested benefits in a UK town. Lone parents in the UK face high risks of poverty and high rates of receipt of means-tested, out-of-work benefits. There has been extensive policy concern with lone parents' poverty and with potential ‘welfare dependency’. Investigation of welfare dynamics has unpacked the notion of welfare dependency, and has stimulated policy to better understand the factors associated with longer rather than shorter durations. However, within this analysis, there has been little attention paid to ethnicity. This is despite the fact that the extensive literature on the UK's minority ethnic groups has emphasised diversity in both rates of lone parenthood and risks of poverty. To date we have little understanding of ethnic variation in lone parents' welfare dynamics. Using a data set drawn from administrative records, this article analyses the chances of leaving means-tested benefit for a set of lone mothers in a single town, exploring whether there is variation by ethnic group. We find that, controlling for basic demographic characteristics, there is little evidence to suggest that ethnicity affects the chances of benefit exit, even between groups where rates of lone parenthood are very different.

Origins and Destinations – Social Security Claimant Dynamics

1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL NOBLE ◽  
SIN YI CHEUNG ◽  
GEORGE SMITH
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Family Structures ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Short Time

This article briefly reviews American and British literature on welfare dynamics and examines the concepts of welfare dependency and ‘dependency culture’ with particular reference to lone parents. Using UK benefit data sets, the welfare dynamics of lone mothers are examined to explore the extent to which they inform the debates. Evidence from Housing Benefits data show that even over a relatively short time period, there is significant turnover in the benefits-dependent lone parent population with movement in and out of income support as well as movement into other family structures. Younger lone parents and owner-occupiers tend to leave the data set while older lone parents and council tenants are most likely to stay. Some owner-occupier lone parents may be relatively well off and on income support for a relatively short time between separation and a financial settlement being reached. They may also represent a more highly educated and highly skilled group with easier access to the labour market than renters. Any policy moves paralleling those in the United States to time limit benefit will disproportionately affect older lone parents.

Madri single che lavorano: uno studio longitudinale

2009 ◽  
pp. 123-137
Author(s):  
Tess Ridge ◽  
Jane Millar
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Limited Mobility ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Poverty Risk ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
Rich People ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
The Uk

- Analysis of poverty dynamics based on large-scale survey data shows that there is limited mobility across the income distribution for most individuals and families. Some people may get better-off over the lifecourse, as their careers develop and wages rise, but overall most poor people do not become very rich and most rich people do not become very poor. Lone parents are at high risk of poverty in the UK, but this poverty risk is reduced for those who are in employment and who receive state financial support through Tax Credits to supplement their wages. This article reports on longitudinal qualitative research which has involved repeat interviews with lone mothers and their children over a period of three to four years. The analysis here explores the experiences of sustaining employment while living on a low, but complex, income and highlights the challenges faced in seeking financial security in this context.

Factors that promote high post‐16 participation of some minority ethnic groups in England: a systematic review of the UK‐based literature

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beng Huat See ◽  
Carole Torgerson ◽  
Stephen Gorard ◽  
Hannah Ainsworth ◽  
Graham Low ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Minority Ethnic

scholarly journals Choice and Welfare Reform: Lone Parents’ Decision Making around Paid Work and Family Life

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY RAFFERTY ◽  
JAY WIGGAN
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Dependent Child ◽  
Employment Decisions ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Lone Mothers ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Child Age

AbstractWelfare-to-work policy in the UK sees ‘choice’ regarding lone parents’ employment decisions increasingly defined in terms of powers of selection between options within active labour market programmes, with constraints on the option of non-market activity progressively tightened. In this paper, we examine the wider choice agenda in public services in relation to lone-parent employment, focusing on the period following the 2007 Freud Review of welfare provision. (Freud, 2007) Survey data are used to estimate the extent to which recent policies promoting compulsory job search by youngest dependent child age map onto lone parents' own stated decision-making regarding if and when to enter the labour market. The findings indicate a substantial proportion of lone parents targeted by policy reform currently do not want a job and that their main reported reason is that they are looking after their children. Economically inactive lone mothers also remain more likely to have other chronic employment barriers, which traverse dependent child age categories. Some problems, such as poor health, sickness or disability, are particularly acute among those with older dependent children who are the target of recent activation policy.

Policing Belonging

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alpa Parmar
Keyword(s):  
Migration Policy ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
Police Custody ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Minority Ethnic Groups ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Minority Ethnic

This chapter considers the impact of the police’s increased involvement in migration control. How (and with what consequences) do criminalization, migration, race, and gender intersect when the police are asked to respond to migration and fears about migrants? Drawing on empirical research on police custody suites, the piece discusses how the policing of migration questions the presence of minority ethnic groups in the UK, the wider implications for those who cannot belong, and how procedures are racialized. It also highlights the widening reach of the police, whose work is increasingly carried out in conjunction with other actors including those who have been enlisted to surveil, report, and help enforce migration policy. The chapter brings to light the everyday forms of racism renewed through the policing of migrants while exploring how those who are deemed risky, not belonging, criminal, or a threat to social and economic resources are racialized.

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