The world of work simply doesn’t work for single parents

New @Gingerbread report warns single parents will be locked out of work and forced into poverty unless the Government #BuildsBackBetter for everyone 

A report ‘Caring without sharing: single parents’ journeys through the Covid-19 crisis’ by Elizabeth Clery, Laura Dewar and Dafni Papoutsaki, published today (18 May) by single parent charity, Gingerbread, and the Institute for Employment Studies highlights how the world of work simply doesn’t work for single parents and warns things are set to get worse before they get better – putting even more single parent families at risk of poverty and creating a two-tier society, with single parents firmly at the bottom.

The report paints a bleak picture for the UK’s two million single parents and shows the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on single parents’ jobs has yet to be seen. Data in the report shows that single parents are more likely to have been furloughed (30%) than couple parents (21%) and a far greater proportion (46%) worked in hard-hit sectors like hospitality and retail compared to couple parents (26%). When furlough ends in the autumn even more single parents may face unemployment, unless the Government and employers act now to protect jobs and ensure we really do Build Back Better for everyone.

The report also brings into sharp focus the need for the Government to better support single parents to access childcare and mental health services to ensure they aren’t further marginalised.

Single parents, the vast majority of whom are women (90%), have much less flexibility than couple parents to juggle childcare to fit around their work, in addition they have only one household salary from which to pay for childcare. Worryingly, the report highlights that before the pandemic, single mothers earned half of the salary of couple mothers and it is vanishingly unlikely that this ‘salary gap’ will have closed during the pandemic.

Victoria Benson, Chief Executive of Gingerbread said:

“When it comes to work, single parents are already in a precarious position and it’s clear that without concerted effort things are set to get worse. Single parents have much less flexibility than couple parents, limited access to quality jobs and significantly lower household incomes. Before the pandemic nearly 70% of single parents were in work and yet many were still living in poverty. The pandemic is widening the gulf and alarm bells are ringing loud and clear – the Government must do more to support single parents to access work and to ensure work pays. If it doesn’t then we will see more children living in poverty and more single parent families suffering the disadvantage this brings.”

The devastating impact of the pandemic on childcare providers means many have seen financial losses, with a significant number forced to close permanently. This has meant that not only have single parents been unable to find childcare places for their children but the cost of these places has increased.  Affordable, flexible, high quality childcare is vital in order to enable single parents to work.

30% of single parents have been furloughed since the start of the pandemic, so they have suffered a drop in income, which has meant any increase in household costs is hard to bear. In addition, it is extremely difficult for single parents, with limited ability to save, to cover the upfront costs of childcare when they start working.

It is essential that the Government considers childcare as a key part of UK infrastructure and properly supports the sector.  With UK childcare costs among the most expensive in the world, Johnson’s administration must help single parents to access childcare and support them to meet the upfront costs when they enter work. Without childcare, single parents will be locked out of the labour market.

Tony Wilson, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies said:

“This research shows clearly that single parents have been among those hardest hit by the pandemic over the last year. But as we look to the future, we need to ensure that they don’t also miss out on the recovery that we’re now expecting.  So, we need to see a far greater focus on specialist employment support for those single parents who are out of work, alongside new investment in childcare and skills support.”

We know that working from home has become normalised during the pandemic, which has helped some single parents. However, working from home isn’t the only flexibility that is needed to ensure single parents can work. The Government has committed to ensure employers make jobs flexible by default – it must deliver on this commitment in its long-awaited Employment Bill. There is also a role for employers, there is no need for them to wait for legislation to review their flexible working policies. The report shows that where employers have offered truly flexible working it has helped their single parent employees to stay in their jobs and remain valuable members of the workforce. We know that improving staff retention helps businesses avoid the expenses associated with recruitment and saving on costs is ever more important as business get back on their feet.

This report makes it clear that the Government must take urgent action to support single parents to access employment and to stay in work.

Gingerbread is calling on the Government to:

• Create a childcare infrastructure support fund to prevent childcare providers from closing
• Change how childcare costs are met for those on low incomes
• Cover childcare costs for parents who are undertaking training while out of work
• Progress the Employment Bill and ensure employers advertise vacancies flexibly unless there are good business reasons not to do so
• Provide high quality, tailored employment support for single parents both through Jobcentre Plus and the new back to work schemes to help single parents move into good quality work.

These recommendations will ensure single parents are supported to find and maintain employment which works for them and their children and will protect more vulnerable families from being marginalised and experiencing poverty and the disadvantage that this brings.

Rebecca Graham, Programme Manager at Standard Life Foundation said: “We know that on average, single mothers earned a lot less per week than mothers in a couple before the pandemic. This report shows clearly how the Covid-19 and the Government’s responses to it have often failed to benefit single parent families in terms of their working arrangements, their finances and their mental health. At a time when there is increasing optimism around coming out of lockdown and potential returns to offices, it is absolutely vital that employers and Government recognise the needs of single parent families and return to something better than the normal that existed before.”

Andrea, single mum of two in East Anglia:

Andrea lives in East Anglia and is a single parent to two young children aged five and six.  Prior to the pandemic Andrea was employed by two companies as a part-time swimming teacher.  She found it difficult to find work that could be delivered during school hours and relied on informal childcare support from her family in order to support her to work.

Andrea was furloughed on the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) during the first national lockdown as the companies she worked for were in a shut-down sector. Since then, she has been in and out of furlough. She found that the two companies she worked for interpreted the JRS rules differently with one being more generous than the other about the hours that she would usually work.  The reduction in her income caused financial concerns and led her to eventually move onto Universal Credit.

Andrea found some of the practicalities of the lockdowns challenging.  Home-schooling was a struggle as she felt there was not enough structure offered by the school and her children did not like being taught by their mum – which often led to tension and tears.  She also felt isolated as a single parent, missing the social contact she would normally have, she was pleased when support bubbles were introduced and she was able to see her parents, however due to her mum shielding for health reasons, she was unable to get any of the informal childcare that she would normally rely on.

While the swimming lessons are finally resuming, Andrea is unclear about what the future holds as disruptions continue and classes are limited to fewer children for social distancing – affecting her hours and income.  There is also the concern that, while demand for swimming lessons are currently high, the companies offering the swimming lessons have also experienced disruptions across the organisations to their gym, other exercise classes and to their office staff.  There has been re-shuffling of job roles, reduction of hours and redundancies.

Due to her parents’ health, she is no longer able to rely on them to support her with childcare.  Andrea is now exploring her options for wraparound childcare and after-school clubs.  As her children’s after-school clubs will only run until 6pm, she will be unable to work additional hours beyond this time which will massively impact her wage, while also adding to her childcare costs.

Sarah, single parent from Northern Moor, Manchester, who was made redundant from the aviation industry in the autumn of 2020. Sarah was forced to put her job-seeking on hold to home school her primary school aged child:

“I’m kind of at the crossroad. I don’t know where, what to do now, because obviously aviation isn’t going to be possible, so I’m kind of now at the starting block again.”

Karen, single parent from East Anglia:

“It’s been a combination that there wasn’t the demand for the work because of child care responsibilities and I think then it’s just been that the firm has managed without me, to be honest, which is then making me very concerned for the security of my job going forward”.

Single parent thoughts on homeworking

“I really like working from home because obviously there’s no commute. I used to pay for breakfast and afterschool club and that’s a bit of a save now I’m not having to do that and I just find it a lot easier from home, to be honest.”– Lindsay, single parent from Bristol

“I hate it. Yes, it was a bit of a novelty before, but I really struggled just because there’s no break from the house. It’s always the same.” – Shona, single parent from East Anglia

“If I asked to go in the office, it won’t be the same as what I had before, so I won’t be any happier, I don’t think, because I want to be with people, I want to sit with people, I want to go to their desk and hug them. We were like a big family in the contact centre, so it still won’t be what I want it to be, so I don’t think I’d be any happier going back in the office with all this social distancing.” – Kelly, single parent from Derby

“I don’t know if it’s just the lockdown or what, but I am struggling broadly with my mental health and I did go back doing a sixteen (hours) on a phased return, but it was making me ill. I just could not cope and I don’t know… whether it was more the fact that it was from home and not being in an office.” – Anna, single parent from Newcastle

On furlough:

“I was furloughed again for a month. During that time, I was struggling badly with money, so instead of just having Child Tax Credit I had to then claim for Universal Credit, so I’ve now actually changed from just Child Tax Credit onto Universal Credit to help me out”. – Katie, single parent from East Anglia

“I wouldn’t [want to be furloughed]. Because there’s so much redundancy round here now, there are loads of people out of work… The reality, once you think about your salary, your bills and the impact, it’s not such an attractive offer, to be honest”. – Alison, single parent from

“I think the worry is that if you’re furloughed, you’ll be first out. So, everybody just wants a job”. – Bethan, single parent

On employer flexibility:

“What they are talking about is in the near future doing is what they call ‘blended working’, which is where I spend a couple of days in the office and two or three days at home. The exact working patterns are still to work out.” – Leanne, single parent from Bristol

“It is going to be possibly an option going forwards that people can work from home that need to, more like a hybrid working so people can pick and choose when they come into the office.” – Susan, single parent from London

Methodology: The research project involved two strands. Baseline qualitative interviews were undertaken with 40 single parents in the summer of 2020, who were in work at the point at which the UK went into Lockdown in late March 2020, and who were not defined as ‘critical workers’ by the Government, enabling them to access key worker childcare and education throughout. Between January and February 2021, we undertook follow-up interviews with 33 of the original single parents who were both contactable and willing to take part.

In addition, analysis was undertaken of the official Labour Force Survey (LFS), to examine the work characteristics of this group of single parents and the short-term impacts of the Crisis on their working status, working lives and mental health. 

This report was funded by the Standard Life Foundation and designed to document the journeys through the Covid-19 Crisis of single parents who had to undertake working and caring, largely in isolation.