A Walthamstow single mother-of-three is calling on the council and government to improve the childcare options for single parents
By Marco Marcelline
A mother to three young boys, Ruth Talbot founded the activist group, Single Parent Rights in 2020 after seeing that single parents were not being treated equally by the strict coronavirus restrictions imposed during the first lockdown.
“I remember walking through the park and seeing people I knew who were in couples walking with other people [outside their household] but I couldn’t do that because the kids counted as your plus one”, she says.
After hearing that Dominic Cummings, the former Number Ten adviser, had driven from Durham to London for childcare purposes during the height of the pandemic, Ruth decided to pen a letter explaining how hard life had been for single parents.
“I cycled to Dominic Cummings’ house with the letter not really knowing whether it’d be read or not.”
The letter led to an email from Dominic’s wife Mary Wakefield before Boris Johnson eventually announced ‘support bubbles’ that effectively allowed single parents to share childcare with another household.
Her fight for improved rights for single parents did not stop there. Together with other single parents around the country, Ruth has been fighting the government’s attempts to make changes to Universal Credit (UC) rules which will require parents of three-year-olds to work 30 hours a week or face cuts to benefits. A petition by the Single Parents Campaign had received 23,244 signatures when it closed on 24th October.
Before 2008, out of work parents weren’t required to take up paid employment until their youngest child turned 16. The age limit was gradually lowered by successive governments from 15, to eleven, nine and then to six. By 2012, this had been reduced to age four. In 2017 parents of three-year-olds claiming UC were required to work for at least 16 hours or face cuts.
Now that cut comes into effect if the parents work less than 30 hours a week. 34% of UC claimants are single parents compared with 13% of coupled parents.
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It’s a policy that has been slammed by other single parents in the borough. School worker Emma Salmon, who is a mum to three children aged twelve, six and almost two, has said she is “shocked and worried” about the impact the change could have on her family.
“I’m worried I won’t be able to increase my hours where I work. My daughter is due to start there at nursery in January and then if I can’t get extra hours I’ll have to find another job and then that would mean finding a new nursery place too.” Emma adds: “If I had to work 30 hours a week I think my mental health would be shot to pieces.”
Meanwhile, the lack of affordable childcare and nursery places in the borough has meant Ruth was forced to take unpaid leave from work. To return to work she had to accept a nursery place for her 18 months old in Hackney as her local nursery told her there was a 33 month waiting list for a place there.
According to the latest data from the council, 14 out of 20 wards in the borough do not have sufficient childcare options for zero – two-year-olds. Overall, there is a shortfall of almost 400 childcare places for under two-year-olds in the borough.
Ruth wonders if she was “pipped at the post” by a couple who were “less time poor”; securing a nursery place can be helped by consistent phone calls that single parents often do not have the capacity for. As a solution to high childcare costs, she suggests that the council “work with providers to encourage them to think creatively about fee structures, such as using graduated fees based on household incomes”.
Since speaking with the Echo, Ruth has been offered a spot at a Walthamstow nursery for her youngest starting from May. When he starts, it would mark two years and five months since she first applied for a local nursery place.
You can find out more about Single Parent Rights on their website
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