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This chapter draws on in-depth interviews with 50 lone mothers who had recently started work, in order to explore whether or not they felt themselves to be better off in work, and what they meant by this. These mothers clearly felt a strong push away from Income Support, with employment seen as a route to independence, which living on benefits did not provide. They wanted to work for more money but also for social contacts, self-esteem, and autonomy, and to feel that they have a purpose in life. Some of the women were also looking to the future, hoping to buy their own home, planning for their pensions, and thinking about the time when their children would grow up and leave home. But on the other hand, many were also anxious about leaving the relative security of Income Support for what were often potentially insecure, sometimes temporary jobs; about managing financially while waiting for wages and Tax Credits to stabilise into regular payments; and about coping with the demands of work.

This chapter presents another case study that analyses the government policies to inform older people of their rights to means-tested benefits. It first describes briefly the social security benefits that are designed for older people, and the financial and demographic situation of older people in the UK. It then takes a short historic view of central government policies on information about means-tested financial assistance for older people. The case study investigates why concern about older people as a group led to more active and targeted information. The chapter is focused on the New Labour government's information policy for Income Support/Minimum Income Guarantee.

This chapter discusses the struggles of Londoners as seen through the struggles of those interviewed in this study. Most of the participants of the study reported that they were struggling to make ends meet. For them life was a constant battle to keep their heads above water. Specifically for a significant minority, especially single mothers, it was almost a nightmare struggle for existence. In this chapter, the issues of the need to have two incomes to make ends meet, the need to juggle time between work and family, the constant struggle to survive, Income Support, a dependency on the welfare state, the complexity of the welfare state and the negative consequences of dependency, and the constant struggle for shelter are tackled and discussed. Evidently, most of the interviewed people declared that life in Millennial London is a constant struggle. They always feel as if their heads are just above the water. They stressed the need for two incomes and they talked about the problems of housing. Though social housing is crucial for low income Londoners, the rules about how to gain access to it are ill-defined and the resulting accommodation is often unsuitable. For those living in social housing, life is a constant struggle to survive.

This chapter investigates how the 12 areas were selected, to represent poor areas more generally, and how the data was collected. These areas include West-City, East-Docks, Riverlands, The Valley, Middle Row, Overtown, Shipview, Kirkside East, Southside, High Moor, Fairfields, and Beachville. Their respective neighbourhoods are The Grove, Phoenix Rise, Rosehill, East Rise, Broadways, Saints' Walk, Sunnybank, Southmead, Borough View, Bridgefields, Valley Top, and Sandyton. The characteristics of each area are explained. The combination of statistical data and intensive local fieldwork provided a rich picture of the changing area scenes, looking back in time, taking a snapshot of the present and hinting at prospects for the future. It is also shown that unemployment was three times the national average; levels of Income Support claims twice as high. Health and educational attainment were well below average.

In Chapter One, author Paul Spicker interrogates the government's introduction of Universal Credit, a controversial scheme designed to unify various means-tested benefits for people of working age. The scheme brings together six existing benefits: income-related Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance, Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit and Income Support. Spicker argues that analysts of Universal Credit must drill down to the detail of the scheme and the benefits that it covers. He sees defects in ‘the concept and design’ of the Universal Credit agenda, as there were in previous grand schemes in social policy history. He also sees potential for the benefit system to break down if it cannot prove to be practically viable. Governments, Spicker contends, cannot easily meet the multiple objectives that must be typically met in ‘simple’ and ‘unified’ benefit programmes.

With reference to the specific impact on lone parents, this chapter examines the retrenchment of the notion of welfare as an entitlement that has occurred alongside an increased emphasis on the contractual nature of the relationship between citizen and state. Lone parents have received some financial assistance and been permitted to remain outside of the labour market to focus on the care of their children since the enactment of the 1948 National Assistance Act. Changes in entitlement to Income Support for lone parents under the New Labour government in 2008 represented the first time that the eligibility of lone parents to this financial assistance was restricted. The Coalition Government has further tightened the conditionality rules for lone parents. This chapter discusses these reforms alongside the increasing influence of behavioural economics, as Coalition government policy making continues to focus on exploring the ways in which conditionality can be harnessed to influence both economic and social policies. The chapter considers how this may impact on the provision of care for children as lone parents attempt to balance their responsibilities as the sole adult in the household.