Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay

Lone Parents Poverty And Unemployment Social Work Essay In a recent study, Rafferty and Wiggan 2011 state, in the past, lone parents with children below 16 years of age had the right to seek paid work or not, without risk of sanction. The recommendations of the Freud Review (2007) of Welfare-to-Work provision and the 2007 Green Paper on Welfare Reform, In Work Better Off, marked a critical phase in policy, proposing a new social agreement that reinforced lone parents obligation to seek paid work (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 2007). Since October 2008, lone parents whose youngest dependent child is above twelve years of age are no longer eligible for Income Support (IS) on the grounds of being a lone parent. From 2010, this was extended to lone parents whose youngest dependent child was above seven years old and this was further extended in the Budget 2010 to those whose whos youngest dependent child being  ¬Ã‚ ve or over (Great Britain, Parliament, Her Majestys Treasury, 2010). This paper will analyse the implications of the Governments policy objectives and their vision that it is right to expect people to make every effort to get themselves ready for work, as well as raising expectations. The government intention is that those who find work benefit from higher income and improved wellbeing. There are also fiscal benefits, with a lower benefit burden the government estimates that this policy change will affect approximately 100,000 single parents in 2011and make savings of  £380m between 2011 and 2015 (Tickle, 2010) there is also wider social gains with reduced adult and child poverty through increased employment (DWP, 2008). Lone parents feel that their concerns have been disregarded; that being a parent is a full time job and there are insufficient flexible, family friendly jobs available (Woods, 2010). Gordon (2002) stated that uncertainty about how to get benefits reinstated quickly if the job did not work out has placed another barrier in the way of seeking employment as well as the loss of Housing Benefit and changes in their Working Tax Credit. This is reinforced by the Policy Studies Institute (1996) which found that many out of work lone parents say they are unable to take paid jobs, even if they could find affordable childcare and the biggest reason given was that their children were too young and needed their mother at home. Channel 4 News (2011) broadcast that as the new welfare reforms for single parents come into force, lone parents are being set up to fail (Gingerbread, 2011). Gordon, (2002) also stated that policies pursued by successive Conservative governments throughout the 1980s and 1990s led to a massive increase in the number of low-income households and families. New Labour changed direction and had policies on making work pay by creating a liveable minimum wage and a welfare ideology, which emphasised the importance of maternal care. One of the keystones of New Labours strategy to reduce welfare dependency was making work pay, a strategy that was especially directed at lone parents through increased financially supported childcare and a specific New Deal which started after the 1997 election. This targeted lone parents amongst other vulnerable groups. The programme was voluntary and offered a mixture of job search support, training and practical support for the transition to work. There were only limited opportunities for training, with the main focus being on getting lone parents back into work. Gregg, Harkness and Smith (2007) state that Governm ent policies to help lone parents back into work and reduce levels of poverty, could had a profound  difference and change the quality of life for lone parent families. The UKs commitment to a personalised, bespoke, support is limited because of the lack of resources and training. Cunningham Cunningham (2008) stated that Social Workers (SW) should be aware of lone parents and their struggle with poverty and employability because poverty is a key and defining feature in the lives of many Service Users (SUs). They go on to state that sociology in Social Work is an important skill for Social Workers to bring into practice to help underpin the General Social Care Council (GSCC) Codes of Practice (COP). The GSCC COP state SWs must have appropriate knowledge and skills to provide social care and keep those skills and knowledge up to date. According to Knijn, Martin and Millar, (2007) reducing welfare dependency for lone parents could result in reduced welfare expenditure and maximised employment rates along with improved socio-political impact for women. The financial incentives for work had to be substantive and sustainable to reduce the risk of in-work poverty. Gregg, Harkness and Smith, (2007) stated that as part of its welfare reform and child poverty strategy, the incoming New Labour government initiated a series of policies aimed at reducing child poverty in 1997 and a key element of this was to increase employment rates amongst families with children, especially lone parents. Finch et al (2004) suggested that a lack of good childcare is one of the significant barriers to the governments target to increase the lone parent employment rate to 70 % by 2010. The Welfare Reform Green Paper (2007) states work is at the heart of our Welfare Reform Programme. Allan (1997) stated that benefit regulations were changed in an effort to encourage lone mothers into work and greater pressure was put on non-resident fathers to make sufficient financial contributions to their childrens needs. In its Green Paper (1998) Supporting Families, New Labours stance on lone parents was clear about the benefits of marriage (Cunningham and Cunningham, 2010) and al so stated paid work is the best route out of poverty (Department of Social Security (DSS) (1998). Lone parents were one of their key target groups. At this stage parents could still choose between staying at home and being a parent or going out to work. In the Budget 2010 address, Mr Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that the government expects lone parents to look for work when their youngest child goes to school. The changes  were implemented on 25 October 2010 and affected lone parents claiming IS.   Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) Regulations (2010) changed the policy too, once children are of full time school age, parents who are able to work and are claiming benefits should be expected to look for paid work to support themselves and their family. Ahrends, J (2010) stated that Gingerbread, a charity for single parents, is still calling on the Coalition Government to  implement plans to enable all employees to apply for flexible working, to ensure all jobs in the public sector are offered on a part- time or flexible basis and  introduce a right to paid parental leave to help parents deal with time off when children are ill. David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg all pledged to challenge prejudice against single parents in 2010 (Ahrends, 2010) and the newly elected Coalition Government (2010) further stated that it was committed to introducing flexible working for all and launched a taskforce on children and families, unfortunately 9 months later this same government has scraped regulations which came into force April 2011 as part of a package of measures to reduce bureaucracy for businesses. Stratton and Wintour (2011) wrote in The Guardian, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, will exempt firms with fewer than 10 employees from all new red tape for three years as it subjects 21,000 pieces of regulation to an audit by the public. This will see a shelving of the right to request flexible working for parents with children under 17 which will apply to all firms, not just small ones. It will also scrap the right to request time for training and education toward Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Freegard, (2010) co-founder of NetMums, commented on the benefit changes and suggested many lone parents would be feeling very anxious. She also noted single parents often want to work, but finding jobs to fit around the school day is very difficult; as is finding and paying for suitable good quality childcare before and after the school day. Woods D (2010) stated that family-friendly jobs are still far too rare despite the Government requiring 100,000 single parents to seek work in 2011. According to Gingerbread the vast lack of jobs with flexibility could jeopardise plans to have more single parents in work. A national survey of single parent members and users of NetMums website found that members had seen few jobs advertised that they could apply few for with part time hours, within school hours or as a job share or flexible in some other way. Launching a Gingerbread Briefing on flexible working, chief executive of the charity Weir (2011) called on the Government to move faster on plans for flexible working: She stated that the business case for flexible working has been proven with most employers agreeing that people work best when they have a work/life balance. Giullari, (2009) states in terms of poverty eradication there has been an improvement. Single parents employment rate has certainly risen, from 40% in the early 1980s to 56.6% in 2009. The Freud Report, (2007) states it is an increasingly common expectation that once children reach school age then receipt of benefits should be conditional on looking for a job. JSA is the main benefit for people who are out of work, to receive it you must be available for and actively looking for work. JSA is only given to bona fide jobseekers, anyone who refuses an interview, restart interview or fails to keep the job search diary faces instant cessation of their sensation benefits; this is not suitable for all. Lone parents still have the right to  limit their hours and not be expected to work outside normal school hours. For the governments policy to work, there has to be sustainable, flexible work for lone parents to be employed in. Under this welfare ideology one of the key assumptions is that all adults should be in work even if it means precarious employment (Lewis and Giullari 2005). This welfare ideology emphasises and promotes active social policies and needs full employ ment to achieve this (Knijn et al, 2007). The Coalition Work and Pensions (DWP) Minister, Maria Miller stated, We know that work is the best route out of poverty. Now with personalised interventions the most successful are when the intervention meets the SU needs, wishes and capacities (Van Berkel and Valkenburg 2006). Ahrends, (2011) debates although successive governments have promoted work as the route out of poverty and that many single parents are better off in paid work this is not always the case: 21% of children whose single parent is in full time work still fall below the poverty line, as do 29 % of children whose single parent is working part time. Ahrends (2010) further states 4 out of 10 children living in poverty are in a single parent household, and 9 out of 10 of them are mothers. More than 20% of women have persistently low incomes, helping, rather than forcing, these women is the answer. Finch et al (2004) discusses that numerous studies have suggested that Britains parents are failing, children are miserable and have poor moral, social and intellectual upbringing. Paton, (2011) writes children from single parent families are worse behaved, children raised by single mothers are twice as likely to misbehave as those born into traditional two-parent families, according to the Daily Telegraph. Headlines like this increase lone parents thinking that the government believes parenting can be done  alongside of part time work are counterproductive. When a lone parent starts work, there are many changes to daily life. and the lives of their families and other family members may have to be more involved in child care. All of this including the social, work, carer and school settings are key elements to work sustainability; this has not yet been systematically explored in research (Millar and Ridge, 2009). The Freud Review (2007) fails to answer difficult questions of how pu tting pressure on the most vulnerable will help the government to meet their child poverty targets and enable the best start for all children. Single parents want to work, for various reasons; increased income and financial independence are key motivators along with personal independence, the opportunity for social interaction with other adults, and to set a good example to their children. According to Ahrends, (2010) 42% of single parents say that having almost any job is better than being unemployed on benefits. Throughout Britain, a high proportion of single parent families are already in situations of severe financial vulnerability. The cost of living in Britain is  £13,400 (Bradshaw et al. 2008,p. 32). Figures produced for the DWP (See annex A) reveal that over 50% of people living in single parent families fall into the low-income bracket, which is defined as below 60% of the national median income after deducting housing costs (approximately  £195 per week for a single parent with children). In contrast, less than 5% of two parent families fall into this category (DWP, 2010). Finch et al (2010) state single paren t families will suffer disproportionately, not only under cuts to public services but also under tax increases and benefit changes. It is clear that single parent families, especially those headed by women, are at risk of becoming even more vulnerable to poverty. Jenkins, (2011) states that as most children living in severe poverty are in workless households, priority should be given to removing barriers to employment for parents living in poverty. Key measures to combat child poverty include help with childcare costs for low income households and more support for parents who work in part-time jobs; this could be done by raising the earned income level at which lone parents can claim full benefits, providing more training opportunities for parents who need and want to boost their skills and an increases in the minimum wage. The London School of Economics and Political Science state the Misery Index is a simple economic concept, which puts together the ills of inflation and unemployment together into a single amount of our financial despondency (Rainford, 2011). February 2011 saw it hit the highest level since October 1992. The Fawcett Society, a charity that campaigns for equality between women and men, points out, unemployment among women is already at its highest for the last twenty years. Women are the biggest losers under the public sector cuts. Women are also most likely to be affected by the governments plans to review regulations that burden business. The Fawcett Society (2011) state that the budget was a good opportunity missed, to present a credible growth plan and had some consideration of how to enable women to take up new jobs in the private sector. These measures were put in place to tackle the private sector pay gap and promote family-friendly jobs, which reflect the needs of a modern work force. Lone parents are facing a changing environment of social protection because of reduction in services and monies available because of the central government cuts. With the Coalition Government there has been a shift away from supporting lone parents being full time carers at home to an employment-based maternal model. There is a rhetoric focus and direction towards supporting employment and now the move to compulsory work-related requirements. Lone parents with children five years or over are treated the same as any other unemployed claimant (Woods, 2011). Lone parents are not now seen as having caring obligations but as a wider part of a hidden unemployed. DWP (2008) state the governments strategy is to increase employment and decrease poverty among lone parents but there are many obstacles still to be overcome. Gloster, et al. (2010) state that some of this is the incompatibility between low paid, part-time atypical jobs and the primary caring responsibilities of lone parents there is also no systematic provision for special paid or unpaid leave, good quality affordable childcare is difficult to find and there are few training programmes that fit into the lives of lone parents. Without the security of a second wage, child tax credits are paid regardless of the work status and the working tax credit is specifically intended as a supplement for low wages all contribute to this incompatibility. Family-friendly employment with a work/life balance are not now part of the governments policies and without action from both the Government and employers, many single parents will remain in the poverty trap. (Woods, 2011) (Word Count 2730)

Assessment of Mathematical Understanding Especially as it Relates to CMP :: Education Educational Papers

Assessment of Mathematical Understanding Especially as it Relates to CMP Introduction Assessment has become a very â€Å"hot† topic in education circles lately. Or at least, it is talked about more often and with more passion. Teachers are being judged on their students’ performance, based on assessment scores. It is the assessment by which we are judged. The reauthorization of ESEA and the ‘No Child Left Behind’ act shows the public’s (or is it the politician’s?) faith in standardized tests as a school improvement instrument. But I also know that the once-a-year test can not provide continuous information about student achievement. The traditional assessments of computation exercises, short answer questions, and word problems will not suffice any more. Typically, standardized tests measure factual knowledge, not conceptual understanding. I believe that conceptual understanding is not only what students know, but what they can do with what they know. Assessments are varied from teacher to teacher, district to district, and state to state. I did an informal survey with some of my colleagues, asking them their reasons for assessing students, and the results varied greatly. I am interested in assessment and alternative assessments in order to help further my students’ understanding of mathematical concepts. I strongly believe that the purpose of assessment to inform my instruction, which in turn will further my students understanding. Background According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards 2000 Assessment Principle, â€Å"assessment should support the learning of important mathematics and furnish useful information to both teachers and students.† Assessment should be designed to â€Å"maximize student learning† and â€Å"support the learning of important mathematics and furnish useful information to both teachers and students.† The National Education Association suggests that assessment is a â€Å"continuous flow of evidence that can only be provided by classroom assessment.† (NEA, 2003) Balanced assessments can actually promote student learning and achievement. â€Å"To maximize student success, assessment must be seen as an instructional tool for use while learning is occurring, and as an accountability tool to determine if learning has occurred.† (NEA, 2003) The 1995 NCTM Standards acknowledged that assessment should: 1. Reflect the mathematics that students show they know and what they are able to do. 2. Enhance mathematics learning. 3. Promote equity. 4. Be an open process. 5. Promote valid inference. 6. Be a coherent process. The Assessment Model from NCTM (2000) includes four phases of the assessment process includes planning, gathering, interpreting, and using data. The table below shows how each phase influences the next.

Jewish beliefs on life after death and Jewish Funerals Essay

Describe the Jewish beliefs about what happens to evil people after death. Death as a general concept is a very difficult concept to come to grips with; it is one of the very few events that occur in modern life where we do not have primary sources to inform us. The torah talks about â€Å"Every Jew having a portion in the world to come†. So we have already established that even the most evil person amongst our ranks will live beside us in the world to come. The problem in the above paragraph which is talked about a lot in Jewish teachings and literature is weather the evil people will live beside us or weather just like a class divide on the trains in England’s past they will be mere peasants in the back carriages. All sources at hand concur that for those possessed with good that have devoted their lives to mitzvoth the after life will only bring pleasure and the most desirable dreams. Back to the original question the problem and arguments occur when talking about evil people. During torah times we were told of a place designed for these sinners referred to as â€Å"Sheol†. When comparing this ideology to the idea of â€Å"Hell† believed by followers of the Christian belief, it was agreed that this is not the case and in fact Judaism does not believe in Hell. – Which is believed to be a mans worst nightmare and often depicted as a fiery underworld. The most well known description of Sheol is a place where the soul is made to stand naked, with no shelter to hide and to have to explain and come to terms with all the sins it has committed. AO2 – Explain how a Jewish funeral service might comfort someone whose close friend has died. The most visually explicit seen which would comfort a friend is the first part of a Jewish funeral, in Hebrew called the leveya translated into the accompaniment. This brings respect to the body and shows the onlookers including the friend how much this body is being respected in its current state and therefore how much it was loved. The (Chevra Kadisha) The most holy people, are the ones responsible for caring for the body after its death and before it is returned to the dust it was made from. It would make anybody feel comforted knowing that their loved was in the hands of these very people, they perform their tasks with the utmost respect. A Eulogy is delivered after the burial; this reminds the friend of the accomplishments that the man has achieved and that his time on the Earth will be remembered. During the second part of the funeral, a hole is dug and the body is put in, the mourner is made to cover the grave himself, this stimulates the mourners body physically and emotionally, and combined the realisation process will begin and he will start understanding that his friend is no longer with us in this world. After he has buried his friend he is in a period of mourning. During this crucial period of a Jewish death, he has certain mitzvoth he must observe, these include not shaving and not preparing your own food. Even non – Jewish therapists have agreed that this method is very good and helps an individual to accept the passing away in a gradual process. Kadish is a prayer said by a mourner and is important because it is said to elevate the soul of the relative and also allows the mourner to feel as if he is still helping even as his relative lies in his coffin. All of these tasks are specifically designed to help the mourner to understand this natural process and to help respect the dead. AO3 – â€Å"It cannot be true that there is life after death because there is no evidence for it. As afore mentioned it is difficult to find proof of the afterlife because we do not have primary sources to agree or disagree with its existence. The torah does specifically mention the afterlife in the form of â€Å"Sheol† and for Jews which follow the torah, this is the most textual proof they need in order to believe this. Just like most of the Jewish religion, Belief plays a huge part, and to believe in the after life is to have beliefs about Jewish ideology. The Mishna and the Gemara, Jewish book of learning do bring textual proof of their being an afterlife. In my opinion the after life does exist, because I am a believer of Jewish principles which tell you that your good deeds will be rewarded and your bad ones deducted from you, I can only believe that my actions in this world, will all be linked to the world to come and I shall receive my just deserves.

ESSAY COMPARING “A JEST OF GOD” TO “THE FIRE-DWELLERS” The

ESSAY COMPARING â€Å"A JEST OF GOD† TO â€Å"THE FIRE-DWELLERS† The ESSAY COMPARING "A JEST OF GOD" TO "THE FIRE-DWELLERS" The prominent life of Margaret Laurence, one of Canada's most renowned female authors, began on July 18, 1926, in the quaint prairie town of Neepawa, Manitoba. Unfortunately, at a very young age, Laurence suffered the tragic loss of both her parents. Laurence's love for literature gradually developed with the support and guidance of her stepmother, a teacher and a librarian. Early in life, Laurence decided she would fulfil her passion for literature by turning to a career in fictional writing. She used her brilliant writing skills to express her personal concern; the progress of women as they struggle for self-realization in a male-dominated world, thoroughly in many of her novels. Laurence's dedicated devotion to the female movement has been the powerful basis of several novels throughout her career, but most significantly in A Jest of God (1966) and The Fire-Dwellers (1969).Neepawa Manitoba Canada

Sex on Television essays

Sex on Television essays Sex and intimacy on television has long been a fought over topic in our society. For years, the FCC and the MPAA have censored any content they deem sexually or verbally explicit from our viewing, and as we know television is one of the largest influences on our culture ever artificially created. Still though, sex and intimacy seep through the cracks of the system and During the early days of television, sexual situations were rare and intimate moments were few and far between. On "I Love Lucy", the Ricardos were no exception. Lucy and Ricky rarely touched each other for any reason other than a quick embrace or in a friendly manner. Their contact was nothing like the way we now expect a husband and wife to interact. And as you may know, they slept in separate beds, which has also been a topic of great discussion. While, of course, married couples at the time, almost without exception, shared the same bed, television producers thought displaying this implied sexual contact, which was of course a big no-no in the mid-fifties. The Bradys were slightly more liberal about intimacy. This is most likely attributed to the fact that the show ran from 1969 to 1974 during which our society was still going through an enormous shift in its value system. Contrary to rumors, Mike and Carol Brady were not the first married couple on television to share a bed; the Munsters had done that already. There were also segments during some episodes which showed Carol and Mike in bed together discussing the days events and usually they would conclude by kissing each other good night and going to sleep. Kissing between them was also not that big of an issue; they did it frequently and without hesitation as a sign they loved each other, as most couples on television before were unable to express physically. Again, this type of activity contained sexual innuendos but, ...

To what extent, is it possible to reconcile the use of the Balance Essay

To what extent, is it possible to reconcile the use of the Balance Scorecard techniques simultaneously for performance measurement and financial perspectives - Essay Example is dissertation will attempt to trace the origin of balance scorecard with a wide focus on its different factors which might have brought about the development and use of its techniques in different intuitional factors include private, government organization, insurance companies, semi government organizations, hospitals etc. It is fact that the there is no guarantee of knowledge, the new innovations are always there to improve the previous ones. We can relate the modern world to engine of gigantic power that we drive but always fear of rush out of control at any time. This is the juggernaut of theory (Giddens, 1990). The balance scorecard is one of the latest innovations in management theory. From its innovation to date, the authors are still upgrading it. This new management system got a lot of attraction and considerable response especially from American Companies but also from other countries but it turns out that the interest from French companies was limited. The recent survey shows that German, British and Italian Companies are familiar with the concept of BSC and responding companies were 98%, 83% and 72% respectively. Among French companies only 40% were using the BSC. The reason for not using the BSC in French companies may be that, these companies were using Tableau de bord (dashboard) before which is very similar to the BSC concept. Some authors suggested that BSC was developed with the inspiration of tableau de bord. (Bourguignon, Malleret, A. Norreklit, H. 2004) The BSC has stimulated a large and ever growing literature which is now widely spread in business and probably to some extent in public management. The BSC has received approbation in both the business and the public management context. The use of BSC in the public management context has hitherto only received limited scholarly attention. However, accounting and management models should be studied in the context that they are operating in. (Hopwood, 1983) For the last ten years, the BSC

Future of more energy efficient planes Research Paper

Future of more energy efficient planes - Research Paper Example (Coogan 41) The robust demand for commercial and air transport drives the current intensive research and development of energy efficient planes. As a matter of fact, the modern aircraft today has decreased in energy consumption significantly compared to old planes. According to Ngo and Natowtiz, with occupancy rates on the order of 70-80% the fuel consumption of recently built planes is on the order of 5L/100 km per passenger and that this means flying over a given distance as about the same in terms of energy consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger as driving the same distance with a car. (333) It must be underscored that technological innovations in the history of mankind, especially in the area of transportations, has been less energy efficient than the technology it replaced. In this regard, the use of supersonic air transport could reverse the trend for air transport. The engine of these supersonic jets are expected to beat all other current aircrafts in the area of energy efficiency because its technological designs optimize such items as fuel/air mixture, engine temperature and airflow velocities. (Siuru 155) A future supersonic transport could travel at speeds of Mach 2.7, making a trip from Los Angeles to Tokyo in a little over three hours. (Siuru 155) Some market projections anticipate a fleet of some 300 to 1,200 commercial supersonic jets in service in the next 10-30 years. Another interesting area in the supersonic jet technology, which makes it the most energy efficient aircraft of the future, is the so-called oblique-wing airliner concept. It supposedly eliminates the conventional fuselage by having passengers ride inside the wing. Siuru pointed to the computations that show how an oblique-wing airliner could fly at Mach 1.6, twice the speed of the Boeing 747, while consuming no more than a subsonic jumbo jet. Here, the level of fuel efficiency is achieved through the oblique wing’s very high lift-to-drag ratio and, subsequently,