Governments in most developed countries have recently been grappling with the question of how to increase the proportion of lone parents in paid work. This book has focused on six countries in detail and has also considered some of the broader thematic issues underlying policy in this field. This chapter highlights some of the key issues to emerge from the experience of other countries and explores some of the wider issues that are raised by this comparative cross-national analysis of this subject.

Policy lessons from other countries

In comparison with most other developed countries, the UK has a low rate of employment among lone parents. Policy makers want to know how this can be increased. At the same time, however, policy makers are also trying to eradicate child poverty. Children in lone-parent families are at a high risk of poverty in the UK, and stay poor for long periods. But these two policy goals are not necessarily both served by the same policy measures and indeed may sometimes be in conflict with each other. The example of the US shows clearly that increased employment is no guarantee for escaping poverty. And so the real question is how to increase employment rates for lone parents while also eradicating child poverty.

Potentially there is a lot we might learn from other countries as most developed countries are also trying to encourage lone parents to take up and stay in paid work. They are approaching this in various different ways, with different levels of effort, and targeting different types of lone parent. In some cases, they are not targeting lone parents at all, but trying to encourage all those of working age who are currently ‘economically inactive’ to engage with the labour market.

Different ways of increasing employment participation

The different ways in which countries attempt to increase employment rates among lone parents were analysed here under three main headings:

• • making work possible through activation policies;

• • making work pay through financial support for employment;

• • making work feasible through support for childcare and parental leave.