Updated: Lone parents receiving JSA claimant count to the end of June 2013 published.
Lone Parent obligations were rolled out in November 2008. This entailed changes to the eligibility rules for Income Support.
As extra processing of the claimant count figures is carried out, the Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) lone parent tables are produced 1 month in arrears of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) claimant count release.
The main points from the August 2013 release are:
- there were 146,660 JSA lone parent (LP) claimants at June 2013, an increase of 24,560 from June 2012
- at June 2013, 131,315 JSA lone parents were female and 15,345 male
- where their ethnicity was known, 78% of JSA lone parents were white at June 2013
Since 24 November 2008 LPs with a youngest child aged 12 or over were no longer able to make a new or repeat claim for Income Support solely on the basis of their parental status.
Existing Income Support LPs with a youngest child aged 12 or over had their eligibility removed over a period of time from 2 March 2009 onwards.
From October 2009 this policy was extended to LPs with a youngest child aged 10 or 11 and from October 2010 to LPs with a youngest child aged 7 or over.
The Welfare Reform Act 2012 introduced further changes allowing lone parents to claim Income Support until their youngest child is 5 years old.
The ONS Labour Market Release also includes the JSA lone parents table (CLA03).
Ad hoc analysis of lone parents claiming JSA shows a breakdown of the local authority of residence each month between January 2007 and July 2011 by age of youngest child and gender. It also provides a similar breakdown for the number of lone parents flowing on to JSA every 6 months, and the July 2011 numbers broken down by gender and duration.
Coverage: Great Britain
Geographic breakdown: region
Next release date: 11 Sepetmber 2013