Magdalene laundries to a welfare trap in one leap

BETWEEN Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and the trade in foreign adoptions, our brutal treatment of single mothers is an endless source of shame. We savagely punished women who became pregnant out of marriage but when the past caught up with us, we instituted a regime of social welfare supports that was also a disservice to single mothers but in a different, more subtle way.

The Lone Parent Payment will soon be removed from mothers whose children have reached the age of seven. The move is to encourage women back into the workplace or into education and away from the welfare trap that is the inevitable result of running the scheme until a child turns 18.

In other countries, single mothers are expected to work – or at least look for work – or get an education when their child turns one or three or seven years of age. In this country we have behaved as if pregnancy was the end of the road for women in the prime of their lives. It’s as if the years stretching out before her are shaped by that single event, with no expectations for her other than a life of welfare dependency.

Welfare supports for lone parents are enough to keep them out of poverty but as the figures show not free from risk of deprivation. If a young woman wants to provide a better future for herself and her family then she has to work. If she wants to instil a work ethic in her children and be a role model, she also has to find a job. If she wants to break the cycle of disadvantage that might exists across generations of her family, again, she has to work.

Welfare payments protect against poverty and destitution but when an entitlement extends over 18 years, it becomes less a safety net and more a comfort blanket.

As history shows us, when a parent fails to become financially autonomous then the likelihood is their children will fail in that respect too. It’s time we opened the workforce up to single parents and to the generations to come.