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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Alexandra Topping

Single parents on benefits being ‘punished’ by Tory policy pushing them to work 30-hour week

Mother and young child looking out of window
Four-fifths of single parents said increasing their work hours to near full-time is unmanageable, the survey found. Photograph: Kaan Sezer/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Struggling single parents are being “punished” and set up to fail by an “unrealistic” government policy that forces them into near-full-time work when their children turn three, according to parents and new research.

A year after the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, forced parents on benefits to work for 30 hours a week or risk seeing their benefits docked, the vast majority of parents say they cannot make the new system work.

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