Lone Parent Employment

: It is true that they are matters of concern, although I have not really understood the hon. Gentleman's point about changes at Jobcentre Plus. Perhaps he will enlighten me. Was he talking about the introduction of interviews or structural change at Jobcentre Plus? [Interruption.] I shall assume he means the changes in respect of interviews. I do not think that such concerns are always borne out. They might be genuine in so far as people think they will lose out, but, given that an in-work benefit analysis can be done reasonably accurately, any fears that somebody taking a particular job will end up worse off can be ameliorated. If it turns out that they will be worse off in a particular job, they have the opportunity to take some other job that does not lead to that disbenefit. If, for example, somebody's family finances have become totally reliant on making sure that the tax credits and everything else are in place, there is no reason for them to be concerned that those benefits will be taken away unreasonably because the in-work benefit analysis can be done before any job is taken up. That is the safeguard. The problem is the fear that we do not really mean all that, that the analysis will show that the person will not be better off working in a particular job, and that if they turn that job down, they will lose out on benefits. The Minister will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that that is not the case. The requirement is only to look at what is available and what opportunities are out there—and, perhaps, what training is available. Training is another point that arises from the speech made by the hon. Member for Yeovil. A key barrier to work is the fact that somebody who has been out of work for a time might have lost skills. It is very important, especially when somebody has lost confidence, that we build up skills to an appropriate level at a speed that people can cope with. I hope that the Government will consider carefully the speed people can cope with, because some do not become job-ready as quickly as others. There are all sorts of different problems to cope with. Sometimes we make it sound so easy to be a parent, and also a working parent, but being a parent is extraordinarily difficult, especially when someone dealing with a crying, demanding or needy child is told that she also has to go to work—and, by the way, get some skills. When I talk about pressures on mothers, those are the pressures I think of, and they are real and significant. Although those problems can be overcome, and people can become a great deal better off by overcoming them, the worry over facing them is very real to people, who must be able to move at a speed that is okay for them. Otherwise, they will feel completely overwhelmed, especially if they find, as they have a cup of coffee in the community centre, that many local employers are not as generous as the superlative employers that we all hope they could be. Some employers offer flexible working patterns and part-time work at an appropriate rate, and they are to be applauded for that. My right hon. Friend the Minister was right in saying that such employers get in return a properly trained, loyal work force and that everybody benefits from that. Unfortunately, some employers have not yet caught on, and there is work to be done in helping them see the error of their ways. I hear many stories about women, often in caring professions, who work very long hours—sometimes more than their allotted hours. They do not get proper remuneration for that overtime—they feel deeply about the clients they care for—and their employers use the guilt trip to put upon them and get them to do jobs later in the day than they should without pay. That is appalling. There is often not enough support for people to get access even to the minimum wage. I hear awful stories about women who accept a lower than minimum wage, often due to jiggery pokery around bonuses through which employers try to get out of paying the proper rate for the job. Although trade unions do a marvellous job of representing their members, they are traditionally not present in the smaller workplace, where women do not feel that they can access the advice they need to ensure that they get the pay they need. That means a knock-on effect on their tax credits and that overall family income is not what it should be. Those situations result from people playing around with the rules, which are there to protect people, and the issue is what we do when the rules are broken. It is easy for me to say to such ladies, as I often do, ““Look, you will get this, that and the other and it will all add up. You will get your wages; you can get this tax credit, and then another to help with your child care—the whole package together. You will be well supported economically.”” These women have never had the confidence to take a job, so if they know that there are local employers that break the rules and that the pay is not what it is said to be, it is a big step for them to challenge those employers about the appropriate rate for the job. We might need to re-examine that area again, although we should not go so far as to say that the idea of the minimum wage is wrong. We need to ensure that appropriate support exists for people who want to challenge the remuneration for their job. In addition, a great deal more can be done to help people move on from a base-level job into something better. That can work only if a point of entry to the workplace is just that, not the only place in which a lone parent stays in work. There must be an avenue for people to move on, otherwise what the hon. Member for Yeovil was saying about pensions will become a problem. Obviously, if a person's working life was limited because time is taken out to care for children, older parents or other family members, and we had already limited the number of years available in which to accrue a pension, restricting things yet further because income was artificially kept down would be another injustice. That would also not achieve what we want: to demonstrate to the children in the family that working pays and makes people better off—not just financially, but in themselves. People get something for working, not just the friendships that everyone else has talked about, which build people up as individuals and give them a reason to get out of bed every morning. Working gives a structure to the day, which is psychologically important. People need to know that it is right, fair and proper, otherwise the message is wrong. I am not saying that this is a universal problem, but I doubt whether any constituency does not have at least one employer that does not play by the rules properly. I have battles from time to time with some employers in my constituency who—I will be careful with my words since this is on the record—sometimes play fast and loose with the employment of women. I deplore that and I hope that they will step away from that kind of activity. We need to be able to examine these matters and ensure that people have adequate support if they do not feel they are being properly treated. I would like to conclude—perhaps hon. Members will be delighted to know that—by saying that I have concerns relating to ensuring that what is available for lone parents as they move into work is robust and secure. We need to give them the support they need for their working lives to grow. I am delighted that we have started down a path that challenges the social attitudes that make the assumption that parents—especially lone parents—stay at home. We need to tackle one more social attitude, which is that of young girls who think that one way of having an identity is to become a lone parent very early in life. I make no assumption about young women who have babies when they are teenagers. However, some make the choice to do so because it seems a logical one. They think that to be a mother gives them an identity and allows them to feel that they play a part in society. As some have found it difficult to achieve in school, and perhaps because that is the pattern for the family, deciding to have a child seems an appropriate thing to do. That attitude is less common than it used to be, but I still encounter it. A couple of schools in my constituency have achieved quite a lot through the healthy schools programme. The touchy subject of sexual activity and all that goes with it is often discussed. There remains a great deal to do to raise people's expectations when they are young: perhaps having a child so early in life is not an appropriate choice, and if they made different choices they could have their children inside a happy home where everybody had an opportunity to do well for themselves. We know what a dreadful effect having children early in life can have on young women—we might be talking about not just the effect on women. It is difficult for them to succeed in their lives and to bring up their children in the way that we would hope. I am not assuming anything about any of those mothers, because I know that they try very hard indeed. If there was a little more support for sexually active young people, perhaps we might avoid some of them becoming lone parents in the first place. We might be able to give them the opportunity to wait to make decisions at a more appropriate time in their lives. Having done that, I hope that the Government ensure that all those parents who find themselves alone, for whatever reason, are appropriately supported in their efforts to bring up their families, so that they and their children can all do well.