Universal Credit, Lone Mothers and Poverty
Some Ethical Challenges for Social Work with Children and Families
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12901937 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Malcolm Carey (0000-0003-1525-3855, University of Chester, corresponding author), Sophie Bell (University of Chester) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-18 |
| Publication date | 2021-06-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethics and Social Welfare (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-6535 • E-ISSN: 1749-6543 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17496535.2021.1939756 |
| OpenAlex | W3048780888 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 42 |
This article critically evaluates and contests the flagship benefit delivery system Universal Credit for lone mothers by focusing on some of the ethical challenges it poses, as well as some key implications it holds for social work with lone mothers and their children. Universal Credit was first introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2008, and echoes conditionality-based welfare policies adopted by neoliberal governments internationally on the assumption that paid employment offers a route out of poverty for citizens. However, research evidence suggests that the risks of conditionality polices for lone parents can often include increased poverty, a deterioration in mental health or even destitution posed by paternalistic sanctions or precarious low-paid employment, which can undermine parenting capacities and children’s well-being. The article also critically appraises and questions challenges posed by an increased reliance upon contractual ethics by governments, alongside the wider behaviour-modifying policies of the workfare-orientated state. This includes that working-class lone mothers can erroneously be stigmatised as representing a morally challenged dependent burden through activation policies and risk-averse social work practices
Child poverty · Child support · Conditionality · Earned income tax credit · Economic growth · Economics · Paternalism · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Sanctions · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare reform · Work (physics · Workfare · Employment and Welfare Studies · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Social Work Education and Practice
Welfare Conditionality
Effects on mental health of a UK welfare reform, Universal Credit
Title unavailable
Poverty, Welfare and the Disciplinary State
The Will to Empower
Long-Term Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers
Professional helping as negotiation in motion
Shaping the financial health environment
Universal Credit, ubiquitous conditionality and its implications for social citizenship
Childcare in Universal Credit
New Contractualism in Social Policy and the Norwegian Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion
The Professional and Ethical Dilemmas of the Two-child Limit for Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit
Lone Parents and Welfare-to-work Conditionality
Responsibilising recovery
Universal Credit
Set up to Fail’? How Welfare Conditionality Undermines Citizenship for Vulnerable Groups
Diminishing Returns
Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions
Universal Credit, gender and unpaid childcare
Welfare conditionality and social marginality
A hand up or a slap down? Criminalising benefit claimants in Britain via strategies of surveillance, sanctions and deterrence
Doing the right thing? UK lone mothers on benefits and their sense of entitlement to leisure
Intensity, moderation, and the pressures of expectation
Beyond Continuity? Understanding Change in the UK Welfare State since 2010
Quantity over quality
How Children Become Invisible in Child Protection Work
The Ethical Deficit of the United Kingdom's Proposed Universal Credit
Americanising Brexit Britain's Welfare State
The Achilles' heel of scale service design in social security administration
Universal Credit, ‘Positive Citizenship’, and the Working Poor
Just Better Utilitarianism
Self-Responsibility and Activation for Lone Mothers in the United Kingdom
The Riots of the Underclass
Deviant (M)others
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |