There has been a welcome and large rise in lone-parent employment in the past 10 years. From October, lone parents with older children will be required to seek employment. From April, the in-work credit will be available nationally, and we will pilot a new credit to ensure that lone parents are at least £25 a week better off in work.
I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. Recently, I visited the solve-it programme at Falkirk football club with my right hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Des Browne). It has an objective of getting 65 per cent. of single mothers who attend back into work, and it has recently been hitting that objective successfully. Will my right hon. Friend the Minister join me in commending the solve-it programme and all those involved in it? Does he agree that it is a great example of how a football club can truly serve its local community?
I am pleased to share my hon. Friend’s commendation of that initiative. We are also ensuring that lone parents are better off financially in work, because work is good for people’s health, their children and the self-esteem of their children. Everybody benefits when lone parents can get back into work, and I welcome the work in my hon. Friend’s area.
Everybody would wish to support genuine lone mothers back into work when that is appropriate. However, does the Minister not appreciate that the current tax and benefits system discriminates against married couples? Will he look into that at the earliest possible opportunity?
The hon. Lady is absolutely right that everybody is better off when parents are in work. We have made the changes that I have referred to for lone parents, but the point also applies to couples. It is in everybody’s interests for people to be in work. Where there is a question whether people are better off in work, Jobcentre Plus advisers can make a calculation to show the financial gains of work, and the better off in work credit will help further. I think that we can agree across the House that it is in everybody’s interests for parents to be able to work.
My understanding is that, under the new deal for lone parents, when lone parents attend jobcentres for interviews their child care and travel costs are met, whereas when they move to the new jobseeker’s allowance regime they have to meet those costs from their benefits, which could act as a bit of a disincentive and perhaps lead to sanctions. Will the Minister undertake to look into that, to ensure that lone parents who move from the new deal to the JSA regime are not disadvantaged in such a way?
I will certainly examine that point. We want to ensure that lone parents plan for a better future for themselves and their children, and that will require lone parents moving on to more appropriate benefits when their youngest child is 12 and over from October this year, as she knows, and 10 and over and seven and over later. I shall certainly examine her point and drop her a line in response.