Benefit changes could help 100,000 lone parents into work at relatively low cost

Changes in the benefit regime for lone parents could have a significant impact on the number who chose to take up jobs and could help reduce child poverty, concludes research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and published today.

The research suggests that allowing lone parents to keep more of their benefits when they move into work could lead to an increase in the lone parent employment rate of up to 5.4 percentage points, equivalent to 100,000 people. At present, 57 per cent of the UK's 1.9 million lone parents are in employment, but the Government has set a target to have 70 per cent in work by 2010.