Disability is the real challenge in supporting lone parents back to work.

30th January 2007

The department charged with meeting Government child poverty targets poses the biggest obstacle to achieving them, the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) said today.

Commenting on John Hutton’s speech outlining plans to encourage more lone parent families off benefits and into work the DRC said that the Department for Work and Pensions needed to get its own house in order by providing credible support to parents affected by disability if it is to achieve its goal.

Agnes Fletcher, DRC Director of Communications commented:

‘There are over a quarter of a million disabled lone parents whose children are in poverty. But the New Deal for Lone Parents is not geared to them and current disability programmes - including the Government’s flagship Pathways to Work - do not anticipate disabled people being parents. Parents affected by disability are at the heart of this challenge but it is clear existing programmes are not working.

‘Only 16 per cent of mums of disabled children are in work.  Many see work as the best way to lift their families out of poverty, but a lack of appropriate childcare and the inflexibility of employers all too often dash these ambitions.  The Government’s childcare strategy has yet to reach them.’

The DRC’s case for greater support to families with disability was underlined recently by the case of Sharon Coleman – a lone parent who lost her job in a London solicitors firm because of the care she provided to her disabled son. Her claim for associated discrimination will be heard by the European Court of Justice later this year in a case that has the potential to affect Britain’s 6 million full time carers.

Calling for a new deal for families affected by disability, Agnes Fletcher continued:

‘We need a new deal for parents, with personalised support services tailored around individual family circumstances, combined with universal rights to flexible working. This offers the best chance of helping parents affected by disability into work and to achieve the Government’s own aspirations for full employment and an end to child poverty’

The DRC will be publishing ‘The Disability Agenda’ on Wednesday 14th February, 2007, which sets out a public policy prescription to tackle the most deep-rooted and persistent disadvantage experienced by disabled people.