Lone Parents Receiving JSA
Tables showing the monthly Claimant Count headline number broken down to show the number of Lone Parents claiming JSA following the roll out of Lone Parent Obligations introduced in November 2008. This entailed changes to the eligibility rules for Income Support.
As extra processing of the Claimant Count figures is carried out the JSA Lone Parent tables are produced one month in arrears of the ONS Claimant Count release.
The key points from the May 2013 release are:
- There are 156,600 JSA Lone Parent claimants at March 2013. This is an increase of 39,450 from March 2012;
- At March 2013, 140,215 JSA Lone parents are female and 16,385 are male;
- Where their ethnicity is known, 78% of JSA Lone Parents are white at March 2013;
- From 24 November 2008 Lone Parents (LPs) with a youngest child aged 12 or over were no longer able to make a new or repeat claim for Income Support (IS) solely on the basis of their parental status. Existing IS LPs with a youngest child aged 12 or over had their eligibility removed over a period of time commencing 2 March 2009. From October 2009 this policy was extended to LPs with a youngest child aged 10 or 11 and from October 2010 the policy was extended to LPs with a youngest child aged 7 or over. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 introduced further changes from May 2012 lone parents are eligible to claim Income Support until their youngest child is five years old.
To access the latest release in full click here 
ONS Labour Market Release also includes the JSA Lone Parents: Table CLA03
An ad hoc release of lone parents claiming JSA is available which shows a breakdown of the local authority of residence each month between January 2007 and July 2011 broken down by age of youngest child and gender. It also provides a similar breakdown for the number of lone parents flowing on to JSA every six months; plus the July 2011 numbers broken down by gender and duration.
Coverage: GB
Geographic Breakdown: Region
Next Release Date: 12 June 2013
