Lone parents are not getting the
advice they need because advice provision is fragmented,
under funded and patchy, according to research by Cardiff
University.
The research, published by One Parent Families,
was funded by The Nuffield Foundation.
Looking at 12 types of legal and
social welfare problems faced by single parents - including debt,
contact, benefits and child maintenance - depending on the
problem-type, between one quarter and a half of single parents
surveyed for the report found it either difficult or impossible to
get the necessary help. Forty one per cent of respondents had wanted
face-to-face advice but had been unable to find it; almost a third
(32%) wanted telephone advice but could not get it. Legal aid
problems prevented 12% from getting help with their problems.
Benefits, contact and child support problems were most likely to
give rise to these access difficulties.
A third of lone parents
surveyed (33%) had significant problems with benefits, 42% had
significant contact problems, 32% had significant violence or
harassment problems and 32% significant debt problems. Crucially,
problems usually came in clusters and often lasted for a long time -
often over a year.
Many lone parents with
significant problems did not seek help with some problems,
suggesting they did not know they could get help and many wanted
help but could not find what they needed. This led to fewer than
half of lone parents with a significant problem of any particular
type achieving some level of access to help - assistance with
divorce being the only real exception. Thirty four per cent of
respondents found it impossible to get access to help with benefits,
28% found it impossible to get help with CSA problems, 25% problems
with the family home. Just over a fifth (21%) found it impossible to
get help with contact/residence problems.
Launching the report today, One
Parent Families called for a new, joined-up strategy on advice
provision to link family law and social welfare provision together.
More funding for advice on social welfare problems and a new,
joined-up approach to funding of advice was also crucial, the
charity said: the current fragmentation of funding streams across
government is resulting in inadequate provision in areas of greatest
need, in spite of the nationwide coverage of the Community Legal
Service's Partnerships.
Director of One Parent Families
Kate Green said: "Legal aid advice provision is currently targeted
at relationship breakdown but as our study shows, many lone parents
are grappling alone with issues around benefits, debt and contact,
well beyond the initial crisis of separation. For some the problems
go on and on and yet they have little idea where to turn.
Particularly in light of its child poverty reduction targets and of
its social inclusion aims, the Government should now take action to
increase funding for advice provision to give proper weight to
social welfare law. When parents have persistent problems with debt
or benefits or housing, it is likely to have a serious impact on
children's lives. The research confirms that lots of single parents
do not see a solicitor even for problems within traditional family
law so we are concerned about the focus on solicitors in the
planning of advice provision and the emphasis on them as the prime
entry point to broader sources of advice. Our findings raise a
question about whether it makes sense to have solicitors as the
gatekeepers to the range of advice that single parents so clearly
need."
Richard Moorhead, senior
lecturer at Cardiff Law School, Cardiff University, said: "Lone
parents struggle with a poisonous cocktail of legal and social
problems, that often run on for years after relationship breakdown.
Incidence of depression was high and lone parents routinely
struggled with debt, contact, violence and benefit problems unaided.
It is difficult to imagine a clearer case for strong support from
the Community Legal Service and yet far too many lone parents
struggle to find the advice that they need. Whether the cause is
advice deserts or something more subtle, what we need to remember is
that access to justice problems have human consequences.
Key findings from the report
include:
- Lone parents experienced similar levels of
social welfare problems as they did traditional family law problems
and over half (55%) had approached three or more sources of help.
- Nearly all lone parents who had gone through a
divorce had contacted a solicitor but 45% of lone parents in the
survey had not contacted a solicitor at any stage for help. Even
with 'classic' family law problems such as violence and contact,
substantial numbers either did not approach solicitors or got more
substantial help elsewhere.
- Respondents' problems were often multiple: 64%
faced more than one justiciable problem (21% faced only one). With
the exception of debt, no more than around 10% or fewer of their
problems occurred in isolation.
- Having found an advice source, a number of
accessibility problems impinged on lone parents' ability to get
help: 61% had struggled to get through to advisers on the telephone,
a quarter had gone to an advice source, waited too long to be seen
and given up, 21% said an advice source was too expensive
- Getting help with contact/residence problems
was particularly difficult for lone parents - they were more unsure
where to turn for help with this type of concern that for most other
problems (other than benefits problems)
- The perceived quality of advice received was
variable. Solicitors were generally seen as being very accessible,
quick to respond and good at explaining the process. But they did
not seem particularly able to improve the situation of lone parents.
CABx were seen as improving the situation but were difficult to
access due to limited opening hours. The Benefits Agency (BA) and
the Child Support Agency (CSA) were perceived as not being
accessible, taking too long to respond and not improving lone
parents' situation. Only 29% of lone parents surveyed said they were
satisfied overall with the help provided by the CSA. Fifty eight per
cent were satisfied overall with help from the BA. (The BA and
Employment Service are now merged as Jobcentre Plus).
- Twenty six per cent of lone parents had
significant problems dealing with child support through the CSA. A
third of those with problems with child support through the CSA
could not find the help they needed.
- For all problems save a divorce, the
proportion of respondents not seeking help with their problem was a
quarter or higher. Divorce, adult maintenance and the future of the
family home were the problems with which lone parents are most
likely to seek help. These fit neatly with the areas most likely to
be provided by solicitors but debt problems, for example, were
common but over half of those with significant debt problems did not
seek help with them
- Just over a third (34%) of lone parents with
benefits problems had not sought help for them. Of those who had,
many had turned to multiple sources.
- After benefits and contact/residence issues,
debt was the most common problem for single parents. Just short of a
third had significant debt problems.
- Forty three per cent of lone parents in the
survey had dealt with violence or harassment. For over half of
those, the problem went on for over a year. One third did not seek
help with violence/ harassment problems.
- About a half of the problem-types experienced
by lone parents appeared to last a year or more and data from the
focus groups conducted with advisers (see Editors notes below)
indicated that advisers saw many of their lone parent clients at or
around the time of separation.
- As a source of help, telephone helplines were
positively regarded. Just over 77% of those surveyed regarded
telephone advice as a good way of getting advice on most problems
and 80% regarded it as a good way of finding sources of advice.
Sixty one per cent said there were some sorts of problem that were
best dealt with on the phone.
Notes to editors
1. Press are invited to the
launch of the report, The Advice needs of Lone Parents, on Friday
23rd April from 10.15am -11.30 at the Nuffield Foundation, 28
Bedford square, London WC1. Please RSVP 020 7428 5416 or 0788 195
1138). The Advice Needs of Lone Parents was commissioned by national
charity One Parent Families from Cardiff Law School and carried out
by Richard Moorhead, Mark Sefton and Gillian Douglas. The research
project had two main strands: five focus groups with 22 lone parents
and nine advisers and solicitors conducted in November and December
2002 and a telephone survey of advice seekers involving detailed
interviews with 200 lone parent callers to One Parent Families'
freephone Lone Parent Helpline. Interviews were carried out between
April and July 2003. The project was generously funded by The
Nuffield Foundation. Full copies of the report are available through
the One Parent Families press office (contacts below).
2. One Parent Families is the
leading national charity providing direct services to single parents
and their children and campaigning on their behalf. Established in
1918, it runs a free helpline - taking 25,000 calls each year - and
publishes a wide range of free information booklets on every aspect
of one parent family life.
3. Cardiff Law School is at the
forefront of vocational legal education in Britain, it being one of
only seven approved institutions in Britain to offer both solicitor
training, through the Legal Practice Course, and barrister training,
through the Bar Vocational Course. The School pioneered integrated
law and language degree schemes in the 1980s. The facilities of the
School’s library have been assessed as ‘outstanding’ by the Higher
Education Funding Council for Wales. The library has over 75,000
volumes, over 300 journals and law reports and a stock expenditure
in excess of £200,000 per annum (well over twice the median for UK
Law Schools). This represents one of the largest collections of law
books outside Oxford, Cambridge and London. The School is also the
founder and editor of The Journal of Law and Society, which is
recognised as the most prestigious English language journal dealing
with the operation of law in society.
4. Independent government
assessments recognise Cardiff University as one of Britain’s leading
research and teaching universities. In the 2001 national assessment
of research quality, the University was ranked seventh of 106
universities in the UK. Eighty seven percent of the University’s
academic research staff work in Schools assessed as undertaking work
of national and international excellence, and the University is, by
invitation, a member of the Russell Group of leading research
universities. Twenty-one subject areas have been assessed as
'Excellent' for teaching, one of the highest totals in Britain. The
University was founded by Royal Charter in 1883.
5. Cardiff University and the
University of Wales College of Medicine will merge in August 2004.
The merger, which is built on an existing strong partnership, will
enhance the world-wide reputation which both institutions have for
the quality of their teaching and research. Merger is supported by a
multi-million pound programme of additional investment and will
directly benefit students by increasing teaching, learning, research
and support capabilities, as well as providing substantial academic,
economic and healthcare benefits to society. The merged university
will be known as Cardiff University.
Visit the University website at: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/
Full information about merger can be found at:
http://www.cardiff-uwcm.ac.uk/
6. The Nuffield Foundation is a
charitable Trust established by Lord Nuffield. The Foundation has a
special programme of grant-making in Child Protection and Family
Justice
Further information
Richard Moorhead,
Cardiff
Law School,
Cardiff University.
Tel: 029 2087 5098
Email:
MoorheadR@cardiff.ac.uk
Jane Ahrends,
Press
Officer,
One Parent Families.
Tel: 020 7428
5416
Andrew Weltch,
Public
Relations Office,
Cardiff University,
Tel: 029 2087 5596
Email: WeltchA@cardiff.ac.uk
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