Round the Clock: In-work poverty and the hours question | Rethinking Poverty

Round the Clock: In-work poverty and the hours question

Posted on 29 Apr 2015   Categories: Publications Related Tags:  , ,

Low-paid parents can be helped to overcome the greater barriers they face in striking the right balance for their families between work and parenting through better childcare support, more responsive employers and a stronger and more effective social security system.

The research – Round the clock: In work poverty and the hours question – based on polling of  4000 members of the public, focus groups with 20 parents and interviews with employers – finds a strong desire among parents to work and a recognition that low income parents face a number of barriers to achieving the right mix of home and work life.

Barriers include:

  • Low pay
  • High childcare costs and a lack of out of school childcare and
  • High ‘marginal tax’ rates within in-work benefits– for example, under Universal Credit, once earning above their ‘work allowance’, families lose 65p of benefits for every extra pound earned  (76 pence if they are also paying tax and NI)

 

Posted on 29 Apr 2015   Categories: Publications Related Tags:  , ,

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