Covid-19: People Living in Poverty

Baroness Janke Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Janke (LD)]

My Lords, poor and disadvantaged have been deprived of vital services and rights in recent times. Some 1.8 million single parents have been struck hard by the consequences of the pandemic. Half are living in poverty, even though 70% of them are working. However, with their children home from school, many cannot work. Almost 3 million children are living in one-parent families, and 72% of these households are being hit by the benefit cap as they do not earn enough for exemption.

To protect single-parent families, the Government should suspend the benefit cap for a minimum of three months, protect the children by filling in the short form for child maintenance service arrangements where parents are not receiving any maintenance, and provide cash instead of vouchers for single parents with children who are entitled to free school meals. This debate has shown that the poorest stand to suffer the most in the current crisis, so the Government can and must make sure that that does not happen.