Within that context, we do not believe that it is right to pay a higher fixed rate of child benefit to lone parent families, which is why we are changing that structure. We believe that the welfare state must encourage work, not dependency. One in five children in Britain today is growing up in a workless household. Most of them are the children of lone parents. We believe that the key to tackling poverty among lone parents and their families is to help them into work.
Lone parents are generally better off in work than they can ever be on benefit.
Under the previous Government, there were no substantive measures to help more lone parents to work. Our approach is different from that of the previous Government. Work and opportunity are at the heart of our approach, and we want to offer more lone parents that option to improve their lives. Many lone parents need practical help with finding a job and with sorting out the changes to life that they need to enable them to fit family round a job. They need help with finding accessible, affordable and quality child care.