SOCIAL SECURITY (LONE PARENTS AND MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS) REGULATIONS 2008

That this House notes the report by the Social Security Advisory Committee on the Social Security (Lone Parents and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2008 that will force lone parents with children as young as seven years to seek work or suffer benefits cuts of up to 40 per cent.; endorses the Committee's view that in the absence of high quality and reliable `wrap around childcare' this could increase hardship and be detrimental to family life; further notes that the report states that `lone parents who are sanctioned face financial penalties that will increase child poverty - an outcome at odds with the primary rationale that the Department for Work and Pensions has put forward'; further notes that the reforms could also damage lone parents' health by causing worry and stress and have negative wider social impacts including on children; and considers that the Government should accept the Committee's recommendation not to implement the regulations and should not even contemplate any recommendation to force lone parents with children as young as one to return to work.