The lack of flexible employment in the workplace is still one of the main obstacles faced by independent or lone parents, according to a new report.
The report, by NUI Galway's Child and Family Research Centre, says that any change in State support for one-parent families must recognise the continuing "significant barriers" to employment and training for this group.
It recommends that consultation should take place with employers on this issue, and local employers should be encouraged to "engage" with policymakers, including the One Parent Family Research Steering Group.
Policymakers should also recognise that attendance at school is not a form of childcare that allows lone parents to seek work, it notes.
The report, which was presented to Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív in Galway yesterday, was undertaken at a time when the Government is reviewing the system of welfare supports for those parenting alone.
A Government discussion paper published last year suggested that conditionality might be introduced for payments, whereby those in receipt of lone parent allowances would qualify for full payment only until children were of a certain age.
The report warns against any such pressure, and says much more needs to be done to create support structures which would allow lone parents to enter the workforce voluntarily.
Forcing lone parents to take up paid employment before they are ready will "undermine their role as primary care givers, exacerbating their already low levels of self-esteem" and "endanger the stability of the family unit", it says.
Even if Government policy proposals are implemented on a compulsory basis, such implementation should be delayed until all mechanisms to support those proposals are firmly established, it says.
As part of its research, the report's authors undertook a questionnaire survey of one-parent family payment recipients in Galway city and county, along with interviews.
Analysis of the results showed that respondents were generally willing to engage in education, training and employment, but found that the transition from welfare to work was not straightforward.
The authors found that the parents' decision to seek further education or employment was primarily dependent on whether it would have a negative impact on their child or children. Other "employment and poverty traps", particularly relating to rent supplement for accommodation, the medical card and back to school allowance, also formed a "significant barrier".
The study found that very few of the participants had experience of formal childcare, due to its cost, and those parents who could not avail of informal arrangements were prevented from looking for work until children began school.
