Prepare versus Repair? Combining parental leave and family allowances for social investment against single-parent poverty

Abstract

Social investment is an emerging paradigm for European welfare states, often described as an abandonment of tax-benefit systems with generous income ‘transfers’ in favour of ‘in-kind’ policies and services.The position of single-parent families directly relates to one of the major critiques of the social investment strategy. Despite efforts to improve employment and make work pay to prevent poverty, European welfare states have witnessed disappointing trends in poverty (Vandenbroucke and Vleminckx, 2011). Cantillon (2011) argued that social investment policies are better suited for work-rich households than work- poor households at the bottom of the income distribution. is critique begs the empirical question whether a transition to ‘in kind’ social investment policies can be sufficiently effective in improving employment to protect households against poverty, or that reducing transfers has rendered tax-benefit systems inadequate (cf. Nelson, 2011). We examine this in this article, focusing on family policies. Specifically, we assess whether social investment (reconciliation policies) is a more effective strategy than social protection (family allowances) for single-parent families.

Single-Parent Family Poverty in 24 OECD Countries: A Focus on Market and Redistribution Strategies

“…This suggests that other factors play a role as well, as well as that paid leave and childcare can be complementary. More detailed analyses on longitudinal data, presented elsewhere, reached similar conclusions (Maldonado and Nieuwenhuis, 2015;Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado, 2015). This research also highlighted the fact that all families with children benefit from longer periods of paid leave, and that by facilitating employment paid leave reduces the poverty gap between single-parent and twoparent families.…”

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“…According to Esping-Andersen (2002), lone mothers will usually need additional income support in order to escape poverty. The findings of Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado (2016) proved the positive effect of social protection benefits on poverty reduction of single parents. They found that parental leave facilitated employment among single parent families, in turn reducing their poverty.…”

“…They found that parental leave facilitated employment among single parent families, in turn reducing their poverty. The transfers of family allowances were associated with a substantial reduction in poverty, particularly among single-parent families (Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado (2016).…”

“…Thus, among the three welfare sources, i.e. family, market and state, the state should support the single parents (Christopher, 2002;Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado, 2016). Another reason for the poverty among single parents was observed by Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado (2016).…”

“…On average, women have lower earnings than men due to the gender wage gap and occupation segregation by gender, which is stronger among mothers. The majority of women graduate in humanities, which typically have lower earnings potential than graduates from the science (Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado, 2016).…”