scholarly journals Child Poverty, Child Maintenance and Interactions with Social Assistance Benefits Among Lone Parent Families: a Comparative Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIA HAKOVIRTA ◽  
CHRISTINE SKINNER ◽  
HEIKKI HIILAMO ◽  
MERITA JOKELA
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Lone Parent ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Child Maintenance

AbstractIn many developed countries lone parent families face high rates of child poverty. Among those lone parents who do get child maintenance there is a hidden problem. States may retain all, or a proportion, of the maintenance that is paid in order to offset other fiscal costs. Thus, the potential of child maintenance to alleviate poverty among lone parent families may not be fully realized, especially if the families are also in receipt of social assistance benefits. This paper provides an original comparative analysis exploring the effectiveness of child maintenance to reduce child poverty among lone parent families in receipt of social assistance. It addresses the question of whether effectiveness is compromised once interaction effects (such as the operation of a child maintenance disregard) are taken into account in four countries Australia, Finland, Germany and the UK using the LIS dataset (2013). It raises important policy considerations and provides evidence to show that if policy makers are serious about reducing child poverty, they must understand how hidden mechanisms within interactions between child maintenance and social security systems can work as effective cost recovery tools for the state, but have no poverty reduction impact.

scholarly journals Child Maintenance and Social Security Interactions: the Poverty Reduction Effects in Model Lone Parent Families across Four Countries

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE SKINNER ◽  
DANIEL R. MEYER ◽  
KAY COOK ◽  
MICHAEL FLETCHER
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Reduction Potential ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Lone Parent ◽  
Maintenance Systems ◽  
Cash Benefits ◽  
Child Maintenance

AbstractIn most developed countries, children in lone parent families face a high risk of poverty. A partial solution commonly sought in English-speaking nations is to increase the amounts of private child maintenance paid by the other parent. However, where lone parent families are in receipt of social assistance benefits, some countries hold back a portion of the child maintenance to reduce public expenditures. This partial ‘pass-through’ treats child maintenance as a substitute for cash benefits which conceivably neutralises its poverty reduction potential. Such neutralising effects are not well understood and can be obscured further when more subtle interactions between child maintenance systems and social security systems operate. This research makes a unique contribution to knowledge by exposing the hidden interaction effects operating in similar child maintenance systems across four countries: the United Kingdom, United States (Wisconsin), Australia and New Zealand. We found that when child maintenance is counted as income in calculating benefit entitlements, it can reduce the value of cash benefits. Using model lone parent families with ten different employment and income scenarios, we show how the poverty reduction potential of child maintenance is affected by whether it is treated as a substitute for, or a complement to, cash benefits.

Postharvest losses and waste in developed and less developed countries: opportunities to improve resource use

2010 ◽  
Vol 149 (S1) ◽  
pp. 37-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. HODGES ◽  
J. C. BUZBY ◽  
B. BENNETT
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Less Developed Countries ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Food Losses ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Uk

SUMMARYThis review compares and contrasts postharvest food losses (PHLs) and waste in developed countries (especially the USA and the UK) with those in less developed countries (LDCs), especially the case of cereals in sub-Saharan Africa. Reducing food losses offers an important way of increasing food availability without requiring additional production resources, and in LDCs it can contribute to rural development and poverty reduction by improving agribusiness livelihoods. The critical factors governing PHLs and food waste are mostly after the farm gate in developed countries but before the farm gate in LDCs. In the foreseeable future (e.g. up to 2030), the main drivers for reducing PHLs differ: in the developed world, they include consumer education campaigns, carefully targeted taxation and private and public sector partnerships sharing the responsibility for loss reduction. The LDCs’ drivers include more widespread education of farmers in the causes of PHLs; better infrastructure to connect smallholders to markets; more effective value chains that provide sufficient financial incentives at the producer level; opportunities to adopt collective marketing and better technologies supported by access to microcredit; and the public and private sectors sharing the investment costs and risks in market-orientated interventions.

Impact of the Recession on Children in the United Kingdom

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bradshaw ◽  
Gill Main
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Spending Cuts

Child poverty has been a focus of UK policy since then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s 1999 commitment to eradicate it within a generation. Significant reductions in child poverty were achieved from 2000–10. However, despite the 2010 Child Poverty Act enshrining this commitment into law, two factors threaten progress: the 2008 global financial crisis which shifted policy focus to national debt reduction rather than poverty reduction, and the shift from a Labour government to a Conservative-led coalition in 2010 and a Conservative majority government since 2015. Austerity, positioned as a necessary response to the crisis, has become the dominant economic policy. Public spending cuts have disproportionately impacted children and families. This chapter draws on nationally-representative data from the UK to explore trends in child poverty and deprivation, 2007/8–2013/14. While child poverty rates are yet to increase substantially, the vulnerability of children to future economic shocks is highlighted as a cause for concern.

scholarly journals Could increasing income in lone-parent households reduce inequality in child mental health problems?

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Chigogora ◽  
A Pearce ◽  
R Viner ◽  
S Morris ◽  
D Taylor-Robinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Family Structure ◽  
Child Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Median Income ◽  
Lone Parent ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Half of lone-parent families in the UK live in relative poverty (income <60% national median) compared to a quarter of two-parent families. Family hardship is associated with increased risk of child mental health problems (CMHP). Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (∼18,000 children born 2000-02), we investigated whether equalising income between lone- and two-parent households could reduce prevalence and inequality in CMHP. Exposure was family structure (lone-/ two-parent household) at 9 months; mediator was equivalised weekly household income at 3 years(y); outcome was parent-report CMHP at 5y (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; normal/ borderline-abnormal). The analytic sample comprised 11,193 children. We modelled the relationship between family structure, income and CMHP in logistic marginal structural models, weighted for attrition to MCS at 5y, and adjusted for baseline and intermediate confounding. Prevalence of CMHP was assessed overall and according to family structure. Differences between lone and two-parent households were represented by risk ratios (RRs) and differences (RDs) [95% CIs]. We modelled a hypothetical increase in income for all lone-parent households, so that median income was equalised between lone- and two-parent households, and re-estimated prevalence, RRs and RDs. Prevalence of CMHP was 8.5%. Children from lone-parent households were more likely to exhibit CMHP (RR 1.73[1.28-2.19]; RD 5.70[2.44-8.97]). Equalising income reduced prevalence (8.2%), and differences in CMHP by family structure (RR, 1.37[0.90-1.83]; RD, 2.86[-0.06-6.31]). Sensitivity analyses showed that associations between exposure, mediator and outcome were comparable in more recent MCS sweeps, indicating that these relationships still hold today. Inequalities in CMHP between lone- and two-parent families in the UK are large. Levelling up income for lone-parents households could reduce differences in child mental health problems related to family structure. Key messages Inequalities in CMHP between lone- and two-parent families in the UK are large. Levelling up income for lone-parents households could reduce differences in child mental health problems related to family structure.

Constituting A Root Map Towards Inclusive Growth: A Comparative Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adnan Ali Shahzad ◽  
Hafiz Asim ◽  
Faran Ali
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Growth Index ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Emerging Countries ◽  
Inclusive Growth ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Income Disparities ◽  
Economic Growth Rates

Developing and emerging countries of Asia have shown a tremendous improvement in economic growth rates couple with the significant strides in extreme poverty reduction. However, most of the economies are still facing some challenges like income and non-income disparities in sharing benefits and participation into social and economic activities. It requires attention that economic growth must be accompanied by reduction in poverty and income & non-income inequalities, and promoting equitable participation, i.e. growth must be inclusive. To address these challenges, present study presents a pioneer work to construct a unique but comprehensive inclusive growth index (IGI) over the period of last two decades for 17 Asian and 8 developed countries. The study made a comparative analysis of inclusive growth performances of developing and emerging countries of Asia and compared their final score with the benchmark set by developed countries of the world. The study highlighted the clusters of variables which required attention in developing Asia to converge with emerging Asia, and in emerging Asia to converge with developed world. In short, the study provides a root map for developing countries to merge with emerging countries, and for emerging countries to merge with developed countries.

Universal Credit, gender and unpaid childcare: Mothers’ accounts of the new welfare conditionality regime

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-449
Author(s):  
Kate Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Benefit Sanctions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Significant Intensification

The introduction of Universal Credit, a new social assistance benefit for working age people in the UK, constitutes radical welfare reform and entails a significant intensification and expansion of welfare conditionality. Numerically, women are disproportionately affected by the conditionality regime for main carers of children within Universal Credit. Under this new benefit, couples have to nominate as ‘responsible carer’ the person in the household primarily responsible for the care of dependent children. Lone parents are automatically designated as the ‘responsible carer’. The responsible carer is subject to varying levels of conditionality (depending on the youngest child’s age) and faces benefit sanctions for non-compliance. To investigate the gendered implications of conditionality for responsible carers within Universal Credit, a small-scale qualitative study was carried out. The study’s findings show that the conditionality within Universal Credit devalues unpaid childcare and subjects mothers to conflicting responsibilities of mandatory work-related requirements and unpaid childcare.

scholarly journals Upskilling the Workers will not Upskill the Work. Why the Dominant Economic Framework Limits Child Poverty Reduction in the UK

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL LEWIS
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Work Intensification ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Earnings Dispersion

AbstractThis paper assesses the policy consensus that exists amongst political parties in the UK in their shared ambition to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Three major pillars of policy – work intensification, re-distribution and skill upgrading – are challenged in terms of their likely success in reducing child poverty. In particular, the assumption that upgrading skills will raise earnings is challenged by examining the changing patterns of work in a selection of developed economies since the 1970s. This paper argues that addressing relative poverty requires an alternative theoretical approach to the neoclassical economics that currently underpins policy. Different national levels of earnings dispersion suggest that the role of institutions and culture in determining market outcomes deserves at least as much attention as the supply of skills.

scholarly journals Shared Physical Custody and Child Maintenance Arrangements: A Comparative Analysis of 13 Countries Using a Model Family Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 309-331
Author(s):  
Mia Hakovirta ◽  
Christine Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Family Approach ◽  
Maintenance Policies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Child Maintenance ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Physical Custody

AbstractThis book chapter provides new insights to the question of how child maintenance policies have responded to changing post separation family arrangements and most specifically shared physical custody (SPC). We analyse how SPC is implemented and how it operates in child maintenance policies in 13 countries: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the U.S. The comparative analysis is based on vignette questionnaire collected in 2017. There are differences in how countries have acknowledged and recognized shared physical custody in their child maintenance policies. It varies from complete annulment of obligations, to some countries making finer grained adjustments to reduce child maintenance obligations and yet others’ making no changes as a result of shared physical custody, with the paying parent still having to provide the full amount of child maintenance. It seems there is no standard practice and nor do the different arrangements map easily onto child maintenance scheme typology. The latter is surprising, as it might have been expected that similarly structured child maintenance schemes would treat shared physical custody in similar ways. This variability demonstrates a lack of coherence across child maintenance policies on how to deal with this phenomenon of greater gender equality in post-separation parenting arrangements.

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