HUNDREDS of single parents in Oxfordshire will have to show they are looking for work or risk losing their benefits under new rules that came into force yesterday.
The Government has introduced new regulations to switch any lone parent whose youngest child is 10 or 11 years old from Income Support to Jobseekers’ Allowance, which comes with stricter conditions attached.
The allowance is paid at the same rate – £64.30 per week – but requires claimants to attend fortnightly interviews and show they have applied for jobs, or they risk losing the benefit.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed there are 4,580 lone parents in Oxfordshire claiming the benefits.
It is not known how many of these are affected by the changes, but the figure is likely to run into the hundreds.
Parents of children aged 12 or older were switched to Jobseekers’ Allowance last year and the change will be extended to all single parents with children aged seven or above in October next year.
Plans to remove 300,000 lone parents from Income Support were announced in 2007 as part of a Government drive to achieve an 80 per cent employment rate in the UK.
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