Current Universal Credit rules and requirements can prioritise getting people into work, irrespective of job quality or individuals’ caring commitments. Levana Magnus (School for Business and Society, University of York) and Marsha Wood (Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath) explore the policy’s effects on parents and Jobcentre Work Coaches and suggest an approach that improves understanding and trust.
Jobcentre Plus staff are on the frontline of the government’s plans to ‘Get Britain Working’ and ‘Make Work Pay’. Under these initiatives, Work Coaches are expected to engage out-of-work and low-income Universal Credit recipients to enter employment and increase their earnings.
It’s a difficult job: they are expected to deliver personalised support while also ensuring that the Universal Credit rules and conditionality requirements are met. These requirements depend on individual circumstances, related to caring responsibilities, health and income.
In reality, we still know too little about how these frontline relationships work, particularly for parents trying to manage work and family life. Our research examines these frontline encounters, drawing on interviews with couples claiming Universal Credit and Work Coaches themselves. Further, it explores the gendered dynamics that are often at play for working mothers and fathers.
Despite the drive to compel parents into work, families in the UK are facing increasing challenges. Child poverty is on the rise in the UK, and 70% of families in poverty have at least one working parent in the household. Childcare provision is patchy and often expensive. Parents, particularly women, are more likely to earn less and work in poor-quality jobs because of their caring responsibilities. Seeking work at all costs, or simply working more hours, especially in low-quality work, is not the answer.
Employment support that helps people into good work, builds trusting relationships between frontline staff and the public, and takes wider circumstances into account should be central to government plans to improve Jobcentre services. Yet we find that Universal Credit conditionality requirements often limit parents’ choices in organising work and care. What’s more, they can constrain Work Coaches’ ability to offer tailored support.
Both parents and Work Coaches want relationships built on trust and understanding, but low investment in Jobcentre capacity has made this difficult. Moral judgements about parenting among Work Coaches can also impede understanding.
Parents are particularly frustrated by a lack of recognition for shared caring responsibilities, and want support to find good-quality, flexible work. Under Universal Credit, parents living together must select a ‘lead carer’, who is not expected to complete full-time work-search (35 hours a week) until their youngest child is 13. The knock-on effect is that the caring responsibilities of non-lead parents or parents not living with their children is not recognised. This often means that one parent – typically the father – works long hours and misses out on time with their children, while the burden of care falls disproportionately on mothers.
“I think if they could find a way to split it … it would be better … this isn’t the olden days, you know, it’s not always the man going to work and the woman staying at home.” – Nathan, male, non-lead carer, couple with one child
Despite claims that Jobcentre support is personalised, Work Coaches can be hemmed in by these regulations and the work-first drive to get parents into any job. High caseloads mean that they often see people only briefly, which can limit their ability to deliver tailored support.
Parents and Work Coaches also have different experiences of how policies work in practice. Childcare support under Universal Credit is a key example. Parents describe childcare provision as difficult to manage and the upfront costs as a barrier to starting work. Some Work Coaches, however, do not recognise how access to childcare could be challenging for families, and sometimes interpret low take-up as a lack of willingness to work.
“If they don’t want to go back to work, that [upfront childcare costs] is a good excuse. I mean if they really want to work, they just think well, I’ll find a way. I might just borrow some off Mum for the first bit.” – Jobcentre Work Coach
Work Coaches sometimes make moral assumptions and judgements about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothers, while fathers’ roles as workers and parents receive less scrutiny. Mothers wanting to prioritise looking after their children can be judged, with the ‘good mother’ understood as one in work. Parents describe how feeling judged at the Jobcentre affects them and their relationship with their Work Coach.
“Generally, it tends to fall into two categories. People who want to work … and ones that categorically don’t want to work until they need to work … Sometimes they have a fear of missing out! They genuinely say oh I’ll miss them walk or miss them talk for the first time.” – Jobcentre Work Coach
The current approach places Work Coaches and parents in an adversarial position. Work Coaches are required to make judgements within a work-at-all-costs framework, while low-income parents’ voices are often overlooked.
Low investment in Jobcentre capacity further limits the time and space needed to build constructive relationships. These factors combine to create a sense of opposition between Work Coaches and parents, captured by a Jobcentre Work Coach, who said: “they’re not thinking on the same side that we are”.
The Labour government is currently undertaking a review of employment support and Universal Credit. Our findings make one thing clear: parents’ voices should be at the forefront of these reviews.
All articles posted on this blog give the views of the author(s), and not the position of the IPR, nor of the University of Bath.
