Work schemes ‘won’t help lone parents’ health’

Welfare to work schemes are unlikely to improve the health of lone parents, according to researchers at the University of Glasgow.

Dr Marcia Gibson, from the university’s MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, led the Cochrane Review. It showed welfare to work interventions have “little to no effect” on health, contrary to the claims of successive governments.

Researchers also found lone parents find work by themselves when jobs are available.

The review compared lone parents who were in welfare to work interventions with lone parents who were not.

The findings suggested the impact of such interventions was probably too small to be noticeable and found that effects on employment rates were small.

Dr Gibson, lead author of the review, said: “Successive British government administrations have argued that mandating employment for lone parents will increase employment, reduce poverty and improve health for lone parents and their children.

“In conjunction with evidence from other studies, our findings also suggest that economic conditions are likely to have a stronger influence on lone parent employment.” The Cochrane Review included large welfare to work studies.