The ALLIANCE has signed a joint letter on the Young Parent Penalty

The ALLIANCE has signed a cross-party letter to Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, calling for an end to the Young Parent Penalty in Universal Credit.

Before Universal Credit was introduced, single parents under 25 were able to claim social security benefits at the rate available for all people aged 25 and over. However, Universal Credit removed that exemption meaning that people under 25 are entitled to a lower allowance of benefits than people aged 25 and over. This means that young single parent families are up to £66.13 worse off per month under Universal Credit compared with the previous system. This is a drop of around 20% in financial support.

There are 1.8 million single parents in the UK – around 90% of whom are women. Nearly half of all children in lone-parent families in the UK are living in poverty, and research in the last year has found lone parents are “more reliant on local jobs, and are more likely to have struggled with childcare during lockdown” (this link will take you away from our website). It is therefore vital that necessary support is put in place for lone parent families.

The ALLIANCE is among over 100 civil society organisations, MPs, MSPs and academics who have signed a letter urging Thérèse Coffey to end the Young Parent Penalty and extend the allowance to claimants of Universal Credit.

You can read the full letter via the link below.

Find out more about the campaign to reverse this policy from One Parent Families Scotland (this link will take you away from our website).