Watching the news whilst munching on my cereal this morning I was horrified to be informed by those nice people at the BBC that the government, in their infinate wisdom, have decided to introduce Welfare reforms . My problem isn’t with Welfare reforms being introduced- my problem is with how these reforms are going to massively impact adversely on the lives of lone parents- the over whelming majority of which are women.
Whilst I’m very much of the opinion that the welfare system should provide people with support when recquired at the most desperate times and should be delivered in such a way, as to provide individuals and families positive opportunities to change and to undertake training/education and provide a stepping point into the work force, these new reforms are at best, discriminatory and at worst down right bloody evil.
If the government want more single mothers working and not on benefits then they need to introduce a widespread system of free childcare open to all. They need to provide more funding for un educated parents to access education- even with the Dependents grant added onto my student loan I’m still only about 6-700 pounds a term better off than my colleagues who don’t have children and also qualify for income assessed student loan payments. That £700 might seem a lot but when you take into account my child care bills, travel, cost of books (which I have to buy because I can’t access the library during opening hours) it’s not much.
There are folks who will argue that becuase women like myself are able to get off of benefits, go to university and study whilst working, and looking after our children why can’t everyone else? And my answer to those people is always this: I’m ‘brave’ to the point of stupidity. I’m also terribly middle class and education is more of a priority for me than a stable income. I can se how that won’t work for other people who are unwilling to want to enter education/ training programs unless they are garunteed a stable income. Why would you remove yourself from benefits, which contrary to what the media would have you belive, are a pittance, but a stable pittance, to go into the workforce or education which comes with limited, expensive childcare and an unstable income. Despite labour freforms most employers are still notoriously difficult when it comes to working flexi- time or having time off to care foir sick/ill children or attend events like school plays and sports days.
This new set of welfare reforsm discirminates against women and children becuase it doesn’t make allowances for the real difficulties faced by these families. Welfare reform is all well and good Mr Brown, but unless you bring in infrastructure reforms alongside them you are condemning women and their families to a lifetime full of penalisation for circumstances they cannot change.