30 August 2006 - Publication of DWP research report 367: lone parents: in work benefit calculations - work and benefit outcomes
New research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions (Report 367) presents the results of research into the broad associations between receiving an In Work Benefit Calculation (IWBC) and the subsequent movements of lone parents off benefit or into work over the following 12 months.
A descriptive analysis was made of when an IWBC was carried out and associations with individual characteristics. A variety of econometric models were then used to find the independent influences of the IWBC amount outcomes and individual characteristics on leaving benefit and taking up work, and their speed. In particular, models estimated (over the following 12 months) the likelihood of entering work, time spent in work, time to work entry, the likelihood of leaving benefits, time to benefit exit.
The research used both administrative and survey data and explored the outcomes separately for stock and new/repeat lone parent claimants. This information on the IWBC comes from the Lone Parent Work Focused Interview (LPWFI) surveys, originally carried out between February 2002-April 2002, and October 2002-January 2003, supplemented with administrative data from the Working Age Statistical Database constructed by DWP. The survey covered both new/repeat and existing lone parent claimants who had been eligible for and attended a Lone Parent Work Focused Interview between August-October 2001. At this time, those eligible for LPWFI were lone parents with youngest child aged 5-15 years and 9 months and a new/repeat claim to Income Support, and existing claims with youngest child aged 13-15 years and nine months.
The main findings are:
- There were clear differences between new/repeat and stock claimants. New/repeat lone parents were more likely to enter work and leave benefits, they tended to achieve these outcomes more quickly and where they entered work, on average they would spend more time in work than stock lone parents. These differences between the two claimants groups were unlikely to be attributed to receiving IWBC because stock lone parents were as likely to receive IWBC as were new/repeat claimants. Instead, they may be attributed to variation in the claimants’ endowed characteristics, such as their demographic profile, educational attainment and skills and barriers to work they faced.
- Compared to new/repeat claimants, stock claimants were more likely to be older, have fewer and older children and live in the social rented sector. They were more likely to have health problems, especially problems affecting the kind or amount of work they could do. The majority of stock claimants did not have any qualification in contrast to the majority of new/repeat claimants who had some qualification. Stock claimants were more likely to leave school at 16 years of age or earlier and to lack work experience and driving skills. When asked about barriers to work, stock lone parents were more likely to point to the lack of skills and/or confidence than new/repeat lone parents. New/repeat claimants were more likely to be looking for work and to have better expectations about the impact of future work on their finances than stock claimants.
- Within each client group, these endowed characteristics distinguished those who received IWBC from those who did not receive it, those who moved into work from those who did not move and those who left benefits from those who did not leave them. For example, regardless of whether lone parents were stock or new/repeat claimants, those who received IWBC, those who moved into work and those who left benefits were all more likely to be looking for work and less likely to have a child with LSI or have health problems themselves than those who did not receive IWBC, those who did not move into work and those who did not leave benefits respectively. Within each client group, lone parents who received IWBC were more likely to enter work or leave benefits within the first year after the initial LPWFI than those who did not receive it. The speed of work entry and time spent in work was also positively associated with receiving an IWBC.
- This association between receiving the IWBC and achieving better outcomes may be explained by the influence that claimants’ characteristics have on both the incidence of receiving IWBC and work and benefit outcomes. Lone parents receiving IWBC were those most likely to enter work and leave benefits.
- New/repeat and stock lone parents differed from each other significantly: while no association between the IWBC outcome and work outcomes were found among stock claimants, an association was found for new/repeat claimants. Among new/repeat lone parents, all analyses relating to work outcomes pointed to a positive association between these outcomes and a positive IWBC outcome. With regard to characteristics of claimants associated with work outcomes, again there were consistent differences between the stock and new/repeat lone parents. Where stock lone parents were concerned, all analyses pointed to the significance of health status and lack of skills and/or confidence, while caring responsibilities and factors relating to children (their age and number or problems associated with them) were found significant to new/repeat lone parents’ work outcomes.
- Both analyses of benefit outcomes (likelihood of exit and time to exit) pointed to the significance of problems related to children and/or childcare, and this was true for both groups of claimants: stock and new/repeat lone parents. There were differences in barriers to benefit exit between the two groups of lone parents too. Lone parents’ age, their health status and age of their youngest child were of importance to stock but not new/repeat claimants. At the same time, the desire to work was of independent importance only to new/repeat claimants.
- Finally, considering both work and benefit outcomes together, health status was the only factor always found independently significant to achieving work entry or benefit exit by stock claimants, while the desire to work was the single factor consistently found significant to achieving these outcomes by new/repeat claimants. This suggests that the two client groups should be targeted differently when policy measures are designed to move them closer to work.
Notes to Editors
- The research was conducted by an independent research organisation, Policy Studies Institute (PSI).
- Research Report 367 – Lone Parents: In Work Benefit Calculations – Work and Benefit Outcomes will be published on 18 July 2006. The reports are available on the DWP website and hard copies can be obtained from Paul Noakes, Room 4-26, The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HT.
DWP Press office: 020 7238 0751
Out of hours: 07659 108883
Public enquiries: 020 7712 2171
Website: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5
Prepared by: Department for Work and Pensions Welfare & Poverty Directorate