For many life is starting to feel more hopeful. The sun is out, hospitality is open, and we can hug our families.
The big question for many is when and where they can take a much-needed break.
But there is a danger that in rushing to positive headlines about the recovery, that the Government will once again leave disadvantaged groups behind.
Our ability as people to respond to life changing events or shocks varies depending on a number of factors. Do we have a support network we can rely on? How is our health? Do we have caring responsibilities? Do we work? How secure is that work? How secure is the housing we live in?
We have seen the answers to these questions play out throughout the pandemic, where although we may all have been in the storm, not everyone was in the same boat.
Young lone parents are particularly at risk of hardship because of life changing events. Having a child is an amazing, terrifying and life changing experience. I know this from raising my own two children, who are now teenagers. Children are, frankly, expensive. They rightly, particularly when very young, take up a lot of time. This can prevent parents from seeking education, training and employment opportunities. Doing so when you are young and on your own is likely to make it even more challenging.
This means that young single parents and their children need support.
Before the introduction of Universal Credit, there was some acknowledgement in our social security system of the burden placed on single parents – where although most under 25s received payments at a lower rate, single parents received the higher amount as standard.
This additional support has shamefully not been transferred to Universal Credit. Simply put, the cost of raising a child has not decreased, nor is it cheaper if you are younger.
Research by the Learning and Work Institute, Gingerbread, and the Rowntree Foundation Trust from December 2020 found single parents of all ages were more likely to live in poverty.
Due to a freeze in the welfare system in 2015 a single parent with one child is now 14% worse off in real terms than they were in 2011/2012. The situation is even more dire for young single parents who have had their support cut under Universal Credit.
In my own constituency of North East Fife I have been working with Fife Gingerbread, one of the many organisations supporting lone young parents. Their important work highlights that teenage parents can face social, practical, emotional and other barriers when accessing suitable support.
Coronavirus: Fife lone parent group ‘in it for the long haul’ as pandemic continues
The project works with a wide range of teenage parents who need extra assistance when navigating the first years of their childrens lives. Fife Gingerbread’s teen parent project works to empower these young people – but what this shows is that young parents need more support not less.
Some young lone parents suffering from this absence of financial help will be receiving benefits for the first time. Others have transitioned from legacy benefits where this support has been in place and is now lost. There are a lot of factors which could result in a young parent moving to Universal Credit. Their child turning five; or living with a new partner. Whilst there is transitional support for those on a managed move to the new system, nothing exists for those who move for reasons such as these.
The covid-19 pandemic has worsened a situation that was already dire. Young parents have been unable to rely on family and social support networks for food and support. Many report facing a choice between working – and feeding their families – and childcare.
We must not leave these young parents and their children behind. They, like all receiving Universal Credit, have benefited hugely from the £20 uplift (although those on legacy benefits, predominantly disabled people, have appallingly missed out) – which must be maintained.
But looking forward it is vital that young parents under the age of 25 are given benefits at the same level as those over 25 as they used to be before Universal Credit. This is why I am working with One Parent Family Scotland to call for this change in Parliament. A letter has today been sent to Secretary of State, signed by over 90 charities from across the UK, leading academics, and MPs from across parliament asking her to rectify this situation. Children are depending on it.
Wendy Chamberlain is the Lib Dem MP for North East Fife.