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Lone Parent Employment

: I was going to develop that thought. The evidence from America, where there is much more compulsion through the work test, is that lone parents and their children get locked into a downward spiral—a cycle of deprivation. The women tend to go, because they are forced to do so, into very low-paid jobs, and their children tend to go into very poor-quality child care. The women tend to be in the revolving door of going in and out of work, and the outcomes for the children as they move into adulthood are extremely poor. Our objective is to deal with child poverty and deprivation, to provide proper opportunity, including sustained employment opportunities, for the women and to improve the lifelong opportunities of their children. Given that, a work test in the absence of good-quality jobs and child care and proper support for parents is inappropriate.