From 24 November 2008, subject to certain exemptions and conditions, most lone parents with older children are no longer entitled to income support if they are only claiming it because they are a lone parent. Instead those able to work may claim jobseeker’s allowance. These changes are being introduced for most lone parents in three stages. For those with a youngest child aged 12 or over, the change applies from 24 November 2008; for those with a youngest child aged 10 or over, from 26 October 2009; and for those with a youngest child aged seven, or over from 25 October 2010.
The available information is in the table.
Number April 2005 6,985 May 2005 6,930 June 2005 6,995 July 2005 7,090 August 2005 7,135 September 2005 7,230 October 2005 7,045 November 2005 7,100 December 2005 7,170 January 2006 7,790 February 2006 8,010 March 2006 8,050 April 2006 7,780 May 2006 7,860 June 2006 7,900 July 2006 7,825 August 2006 7,855 September 2006 8,150 October 2006 7,915 November 2006 7,810 December 2006 7,705 January 2007 7,885 February 2007 7,985 March 2007 7,975 April 2007 7,790 May 2007 7,580 June 2007 7,565 July 2007 7,540 August 2007 7,570 September 2007 7,585 October 2007 7,105 November 2007 6,510 December 2007 6,105 January 2008 6,415 February 2008 6,625 March 2008 6,850 April 2008 7,180 May 2008 7,260 June 2008 7,530 July 2008 7,770 August 2008 8,445 September 2008 8,915 October 2008 9,365 November 2008 10,385 December 2008 12,225 January 2009 14,660 February 2009 17,670 March 2009 21,095 April 2009 25,965 May 2009 30,830 June 2009 33,000 July 2009 34,835 August 2009 40,775 September 2009 45,425 October 2009 48,040 November 2009 50,265 Notes: 1. Claimant Count: A monthly count of jobseeker’s allowance claimants in Great Britain. Totals exclude non-computerised clerical claims. 2. Some jobseeker’s allowance claimants have their marital status coded as “not known”. Such claimants who are claiming child benefit for at least one child aged under 16 may be lone parents but are not recorded as such in the above table. 3. These volumes may be subject to retrospective changes as and when DWP receive updated child benefit data. 4. Identification of lone parents claiming JSA: The preferred source of numbers on JSA is the Claimant Count which is produced on a monthly basis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) via the NOMIS website: www.nomisweb.co.uk DWP are providing a breakdown of this headline number so we can identify the number of lone parents claiming JSA following the roll out of lone parent obligations. This is done using marital status information from the claimant count data alongside HMRC child benefit data. Specifically looking at whether a JSA claimant has their marital status recorded as “single”; “widowed”; “divorced” or “separated”, and has an open child benefit claim for at least one child aged under 16, at the ‘count date’ (second Thursday of each month). 5. Data are not available prior to the introduction of these new statistics. Experimental statistics: The new statistics will be labelled as an ‘experimental’ breakdown to the National Statistic status JSA Claimant Count. This label will remain until we are confident that we have a stable methodology and we have given users a chance to comment on the statistics. Source: ONS Claimant Count data and HMRC Child Benefit data.