Fri, 16/12/2011 - 6:01pm
15 December 2011 – Lone Parent Obligations: work, childcare and the JSA regime
Findings are published today from the evaluation of Lone Parent Obligations (LPO). ‘Lone Parent Obligations: work, childcare and the Jobseeker’s Allowance regime’ is based on in-depth interviews with lone parents who made a claim for Jobseeker’s Allowance when their youngest child was seven.
Findings from the report show that:
- The lone parents in this study were generally very positive about work and the benefits that it would bring them and their families. Lone parents felt positive about work for both financial and non-financial reasons.
- The work readiness of lone parents depended on whether they had a ‘strong work attachment’, a ‘high parenting orientation’ or had experienced a ‘critical life event’. Some in this latter group were the least work ready.
- Across the different groups of lone parents on JSA there was a strong dislike of claiming JSA. Negative attitudes to claiming JSA meant that JSA often gave lone parents a ‘push’ towards work. JSA seemed to have the greatest effect on attitudes to work for those with a high parenting orientation. Claiming JSA often gave these lone parents a direct push to look for work because they had to do so as part of the JSA regime.
- For lone parents who had a strong work attachment, their often recent work experience and high work orientation meant that they generally felt that being on JSA had no effect on their attitude to work. Those lone parents who had experienced a critical life event were more varied in their opinions of whether JSA had affected their attitudes to work.
- The reluctance to use formal childcare was less strongly reported by this group of lone parents compared with lone parents with older children in previous evaluations of LPO. This appears to be because of positive experiences of free early years education. These families also reported positive experience or attitudes towards breakfast and after-school clubs.
- A small group of lone parents had moved into work of 16 hours or more per week at the time of interview. It was common for these to be low-skilled and low-paid positions. Generally, the lone parents were working part-time, often within school hours.
Notes to Editors:
- ‘Lone Parent Obligations: work, childcare and the Jobseeker’s Allowance regime’, by Pippa Lane, Jo Casebourne, Lorraine Lanceley and Malen Davies is published today as part of the DWP Research Report series (Number 782). A copy of the report can be downloaded from the Department’s website at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs-index.asp and a copy of the stand-alone summary from http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/summ_index.asp
- The findings are based on qualitative fieldwork in three case study areas. Interviews were completed in June and July 2011 with 60 lone parents who made a claim for JSA when their youngest child was aged seven. A small number of lone parents had slightly older children. These lone parents were included in order to ensure that sufficient interviews were carried out with lone parents who had experienced a sanction or disentitlement. The interviews explored issues such as work readiness, childcare, claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, looking for work and any experience of moving into work.
- There is an extensive programme of evaluation research, using a mixed methods approach, to assess the effects of Lone Parent Obligations (LPO). Earlier reports from the evaluation are available on the Department’s website.
- LPO was introduced in November 2008. Since then, based on the age of their youngest child, some lone parents have lost entitlement to Income Support solely on the grounds of being a lone parent. From October 2010, the age of the youngest child was lowered to seven and over.
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Wed, 28/12/2011 - 1:12pm
#2
Do you earn enough for a minimum acceptable standard of living?
- The Minimum Income Standard for the UK shows how much money people need, so that they can buy things that members of the public think that everyone in the UK should be able to afford.
- This calculator allows you to see the minimum for your own family type.
- You can also make certain adjustments for your own situation, and compare your income with the minimum.
- The calculator is based on public views about a minimum standard that nobody should fall below. It does not try to show you what you require to meet all your individual needs, and is not suitable for use as a personal budgeting tool.
Main uses
FRS is the main UK-wide general household survey and contains a variety of information about households, families and individuals. Example uses therefore include analyses of those lacking:
Note that some researchers erroneously use the British Household Panel Survey, General Lifestyle Survey or Living Costs and Food Survey for general UK-wide or Great Britain-wide household analyses. Except in isolated cases, however, their use in this regard has been supplanted by the much larger Family Resources Survey.
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Source
In summary:
A summary of each of the 25 tables is provided below.
Collectively, these tables form a hierarchical database, as illustrated in the diagram below (where those levels used in this website are highlighted in yellow). The records at each level in the hierarchy can be associated with the relevant record at the next level up. So, for example, a bank account can be associated with an individual, which can be associated with benefit unit, which can be associated with a household.
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General issues
Which software to use
All the tables apart from the accounts table are less than 50,000 records and, as such, they can be exported into Excel. The accounts table can also be exported but will then cross multiple worksheets.
The importance of 'benefit units'
'Benefit unit', which is the technical term for 'family', is an important level in the FRS hierarchy as it is at this level that data about family type, family work status and lack of essential items is recorded.
For an in-depth discussion of what a 'benefit unit' is, and how it relates to both households and individuals, see the page on households, families and benefit units. In summary, whereas a household is everyone who lives behind the same 'front door', a 'benefit unit' is an adult plus their spouse (if applicable) plus any dependent children they are living with. So, for example, a young adult living with their parents would count as one 'household' but two 'benefit units'. More generally:
Links to the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset
The HBAI dataset is derived from the FRS dataset and, as there is precisely one record in the HBAI dataset for each benefit unit in the FRS dataset, the two datasets can be linked together using a combination of the household serial number and the benefit unit number.
So, for example, FRS records whether or not each household has central heating. By linking this data to the relevant records in the HBAI dataset, the proportion of households without central heating can be calculated for each level of household income.
When to use FRS and when to use HBAI
The HBAI dataset is a whole series of variables which have been derived from original data in FRS. The relationship between the two datasets can be summarised as follows:
The net result of this is that:
Which tables to use
The obvious rule is to use the table which holds the required data, linking this table to other tables higher up the hierarchy as required. So, for example:
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Relevant graphs on this website
UK graphs
Exclude adults who are either of pensionable age or are not employees.
Exclude Northern Ireland to ensure consistent time series.
Aggregate accounts by household.
Aggregate accounts by household.
Question not asked since 2003/04.
Exclude Northern Ireland to ensure consistent time series.
Question not asked since 2003/04.
Notes:
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland graphs
These are effectively a subset of the UK graphs using government region (from the household table) as a filter.
http://www.poverty.org.uk/technical/frs.shtml
Also refer
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/frs/
http://www.esds.ac.uk/government/frs/
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/surveys/a-z-of-surveys/family-resour...