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‘It Didn't Always Work’: Low-Income Children's Experiences of Changes in Mothers’ Working Patterns in the UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Tess Ridge
Tess Ridge*
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath Email: T.M.Ridge@bath.ac.uk
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Abstract

Underpinning Labour's welfare-to-work policies is an assumption that employment will benefit disadvantaged children and their families. However, the effect of low-income and unstable employment on lone mothers and their children is uncertain. This article draws on interviews with children drawn from a qualitative, longitudinal study of low-income working family life, to explore the accounts of those children whose mother's entry into the labour market was unsuccessful. The article examines how children experienced their mother's employment and the impact of ‘failed’ work transitions on their well-being and their perceptions of the value of work for them and their families.

Type
Themed section on Children's Perspectives on Poverty and Disadvantage in Rich and Developing Countries
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 503 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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