Lone parents may be forced to attend job interviews

LONE PARENTS on income support could be compelled to attend Job Centre interviews under the Government's "New Deal", Alistair Darling, Social Security Secretary, indicated yesterday on television.

Figures issued today by the Department of Social Security for the initial pilot project showed only half the lone parents sent a letter inviting them to attend an interview with a personal adviser had done so.

With the scheme due to roll out nationally this week, Mr Darling told BBC1's On the Record that the Government would now look at ways of ensuring a higher rate of attendance.

While he stressed that, unlike the young unemployed, lone parents would not be made to seek work, but he did not rule out requiring them to attend an interview.

"I think there is a world of difference between being compelled to go into work and saying to somebody: `The Government can help you in ways you may not have thought possible, and you ought to have a look and see what options are open to you'," he said.

"How we do that is something the Government is reflecting on, and I will make an announcement to Parliament in due course."

According to the DSS figures to 25 September, 48,394 letters had been sent out to lone parents with children of school age in the eight pilot areas.

Altogether 26,934 arranged an initial interview, and 24,413 actually turned up. Of those, 17,658 signed up for the "New Deal", with 4,736 obtaining jobs and a further 694 increasing the hours they worked.

Although the figures meant that only one in 10 of those originally contacted had found new work, Mr Darling insisted that he was pleased with the results.

"If you were to reflect that right across the country, it would mean 100,000 lone parents would go into work," he said.

Ministers have argued that the statistics for those finding jobs would become more impressive as the scheme rolled out over time.

The Government has allocated pounds 181m for the scheme over the lifetime of this Parliament from the Windfall Tax on privatised utilities.

An additional pounds 10m was announced later for pilot training options, and the Government has earmarked a further pounds 50m for benefits to help working parents afford child care.

Conservative MPs say it is not proving cost-effective, and they are demand proof that it is helping to find jobs for people who would not otherwise have done so.