Trapped in poverty; hassled by social security and the Child Support Act; squeezed out of work by the recession - as if life were not hard enough, single mothers are now handy scapegoats for the Tories' hypocritical 'moral crusade'. ELLEN MOORE looks at the plight of today's lone mother in 'CHILDCARE in this country is a joke.
*For a woman who has got very little resources unless you are lucky enough to get a goverment subsidised nursery, any that one factor stops a lot of women coming off social security and getting a job.' comments Grace a single mother.
The UK has one of the worst records of provision for publicly funded childcare places in the EC. Only Luxembourg Looking to profit from Child Support Act: Treasury Secretary Portillo, seeking spending cuts and Ireland have worse provision for under 2s and only Portueal less for 3-4 vta olds. Local government cuts mean that in many arcas only children on the at risk' register have access to childcare places.
The social security system fails to prorect women adequately from poverty be recognise the Cause sO compickily of most women's lives. in 198155 percent of lone mothers were dependent on benefits by 1990 this had risen to ol per cent Beveridge's social security scheme, devised in the 1940s. assumed a tradi tional family unit with a full-time male home looking after the children.
The system has not kept pace with womens changing role or the changing structure of peoples lives. Many of the recent changes in the social security system have had a detrimental effect of • Childcare costs cannot be set against earings for income support (they could under supplementary benefit);
• The introduction of the social fund, an additional burden of responsibility on • The freezing of child benefit for three years further increases poverty.
Means tested
The combined problems of coping with bringing up children on their own, ano te clinculacs or mining on d single wagc, very often at low levels, mean that lone mothers find themselves forced to rely on means tested benefits for long periods. Many are trapped in a The ridiculously low benefit levels mean an exhausts mand to mout existenoc - shopping day by day at expensive local shops, spending time searching socond hand shops for the kids clothes and juggling the demands of fuel bill, rent and food.
*I just get the kids together and say. week... I'm getting used to doing that That is how Jackie, a lone mother deon sandwiches for a week to help pay a large electricity bill.
Women are more likely than men to have breaks in employment and to work mart-time and car low wages; so many fall below the threshold for making natonal insurance contahations, In 1992 3.25 million women fell into this cate8oT)%c Child Support Act (CA) which came into force in April represents an acationar artack on singie mours. Long women on income support will be forced to help the state pursue absent parents in order to get maintenance, on pain of having their benefit cut.
The only exception in for those who convince the authorities that they would suffer 'harm or undue distress".
Absent fathers" level of maintenance payments will oc set by the stare, wah at ultimate penalty for non-payment of a six week prison sentence.
The CSA was portrayed as a campaigning measure to force negligent fathers to pay-up. It struck a popular chord amongst many who thought there were too many fathers neglecting their chil dren and partners.
But it is an Act which furthers state intrusion into people's personal relationships, and will push many single mothers further into poverty and misery.
It is not always casy to prove that a course of action will provoke harm or undue distress". Women may have many valid reasons for having no contact with the biological father of their children. It should be their choice.
For those on income support - unlike parents not on benefit, who can come to "Even if a lone mother co-operates with the Agency and maintenance is recovered, the whole amount will be deducted from her income support. She and the children gain nothing from the absent parent's payments, while the state pockets the difference" a voluntary agreement with the Child Support Agency - reluct to co-opcrate will result in a 20 per cent benefit cut for the muse six mors and a tarter son ay cent cut for the following year.
Even if a lone mother co-operates with the agency and maintenance is recoverod, the whole amount will be deducted from her income support, She and the children gain nothing from the absent parent's payments, while the state pockets the difference.
The Tory attacks on benefit levels and the introduction of the Child Support Act, coupled with local goverment cuts, nave pusnca over one minon one wish ers deeper into poverty.
Message
But the onslaught is not all material. the CSA is punitive and has an underlying message that to be a mother alone mains you co not have the right to stat benefits. The message from the state is that it is not acceptable to bring up children alone. Women are lone parents for many different and complex reasons and many women bring up children alone by choice.
Lone mothers are also scancooated by the Tories and the media as responsible tor accining moral standaros, mcreases in juvenile crime and the general moral panic in society.
Women should not be driven into porerty because they have a child; neither should their needs been seen as special Good, publicly funded childcare, decent wages, good housing, higher benefit levels and the right to live without state necessities for everyone.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 43 May 29 1993. Page 12 Part One of a series on politics and the trade unions