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Diminishing Returns: Lone Mothers’ Financial Work Incentives and Incomes under the Coalition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2015

Helen Kowalewska
Helen Kowalewska*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton E-mail: h.kowalewska@soton.ac.uk
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Abstract

Lone mothers in the UK are a key target group of tax-benefit measures designed to ‘make work pay’. This article assesses how the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition's ‘make work pay’ agenda since 2010 has potentially affected single mothers. It calculates two lone mothers’ incomes and incentives for a range of working hours and wage rates under the Coalition and previous New Labour government. While the Coalition's measures substantially improve the lone mothers’ incentives to work in mini-jobs of fewer than sixteen hours, their incentives to work longer are still weak, if not weaker than under Labour. Furthermore, the financial returns to progressing in work begin to diminish once hours exceed just six at average wage and nine at minimum wage. While tougher conditionality may still push many lone parents to work longer, weak labour demand and reduced employment supports could undermine their abilities to meet increased work expectations.

Keywords

Make work paymini-jobsNew LabourUKUniversal Credit
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 569 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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