Single mums needed

Just working on a story about single mums going to be hit hardest by government cuts.

here is more info:

SINGLE MOTHERS 'WORST HIT BY CUTS'
By Andrew Woodcock, Press Association Political Editor
Single mothers will be hit harder than any other group by the coalition
Government's programme of benefit cuts and tax rises, losing an average 8.5% of
their income after tax by 2015, according to a report released today.
Cuts to public services will also hit lone parents harder than other
households, costing them the equivalent of 18.5% of their net income - more than
double the impact on couples with children.
Gender equality charity the Fawcett Society said that the Government was
expecting some of the least well-off to act as "shock absorbers" for the rest
of society by taking the brunt of the cuts.
The society's report - entitled Single Mothers: Singled Out - draws on analysis
by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) of the impact of changes announced in
George Osborne's emergency budget in June 2010, last autumn's Comprehensive
Spending Review and the March Budget.
It found that by 2015 the average single mother will have lost the equivalent
of more than one month's income a year due to changes including reductions on
housing benefit, the restriction of maternity grants to the first child, a
three-year freeze on child benefit and a cut in the childcare element of the
working tax credit.
Lone mothers will lose around 8.5% of their net income, compared to 7.5% for
single fathers, 6.5% for couples with children, and about 2.5% for couples
without children, the report stated.
Fawcett's acting chief executive Anna Bird said: "Women are bearing the brunt
of cuts. Single women, on average, are set to lose a greater proportion of their
income than other households, such as single men or couple households.
"In part this is because women are typically poorer than men, but it is also
because women make up the vast majority of lone parents - and it this group that
are set to lose most under the reforms.
"Some of the least well-off in our society are being forced to act as shock
absorbers for the cuts, with women - in particular single mothers - faring
worse."
The Fawcett Society last year failed in a bid to trigger a judicial review of
the legality of the Government's economic policies on the grounds that they did
not comply with the duty to have regard to their impact on equality.
During that case, the Treasury argued that it was not possible to make a
meaningful assessment of the different impact of cuts on men and women.
But Ms Bird said the IFS analysis "puts paid to the idea that the Government
can't anticipate or predict the impact of its fiscal policies on different
demographic groups".
"Had the Treasury been doing this research in the first place, single mothers
might now not be facing a situation where they can't afford childcare and so
can't work, and where some of the poorest women in our society are right now
getting poorer."
She added: "A year on from the coalition Government's first budget, we call on
the Chancellor to adopt this analysis in future budgets to allow for fairer and
more transparent decision-making.
"The Government should also review welfare, employment and childcare policy so
that lone mothers do not shoulder more than their fair share of cuts."
end

Just wondering if any mums are in London and would be willing to talk.

Or could get themselves into their local radio station??

If so email me - barry.weir@bskyb.com - my deadline is this afternoon.

Thanks

Barry