Frank Field: Single parenthood 'not a desirable life choice'

Young people should be told that single parenthood is not a "desirable life choice", a former social security minister said today.

Labour's Frank Field  (pictured) said politicians had an obligation to spell out that becoming a single parent was likely to lead to poverty.

And he hit out at pressure groups for glamorising single parenthood and seeking to skew debate on the issue.

Mr Field said he had been "disturbed" that some single parent groups had attacked Tory leader David Cameron for seeking to support marriage through the tax system.

And he told MPs: "We do need to get over to younger people that it isn't a desirable life choice to opt for single parenthood.

"Many people have this inflicted upon them but the way we allow people to make that decision without spelling out what it means to them and their life chances - and more importantly their children's - we fail that next generation.

"And it isn't good enough for the pressure groups to wheel out these upper middle class young single parents, who are having a whale of a time, who say: 'I'm so pleased I'm a young single parent, I can't tell you all the choices I've had, I've got all this over with' and the rest of it.

"The young women who follow that model in my constituency do not have those bank balances to see them through."

Mr Field was speaking during report stage debate on the Child Poverty Bill, which places a legal duty on the Government to work towards meeting child poverty targets by 2020 and sets up a commission to advise on progress.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Steve Webb called on ministers to strengthen the legislation by adding a target relating to income after housing costs are taken into account.

"It gives us a new lens through which to view child poverty, it doesn't take away from any of the existing measures and it catches an important facet of poverty," he told MPs.

For Tories, Andrew Selous said he wanted to see targets introduced to reduce the causes of poverty.

"The Bill doesn't do enough at an early enough stage to deal with the causes of poverty," he warned.

The Government has committed to eliminating child poverty by 2020 and to halve it by 2010.

Mr Selous called for the 2010 target, which looks set to be missed, to also be enshrined in law as a way of forcing the Government to explain how progress will be made.

"If we carry on at the current rate of progress with the strategy that the Government has had in place since 1999 we do not have a chance of meeting the 2020 target," he said,

Tory Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) said the Bill was an attempt to distract campaigners from Labour's failure to meet its own targets.

"So instead of being honest with people they have set out instead to promise eradication in 10 years' time when we know the public finances will be far tougher.

"And therefore the likelihood is that a fraud and a deceit is being put upon people and the poorest children in this country by a Government that is seeking to distract, not actually tackle the root cause."

Fiona Weir, chief executive of national single parent charity Gingerbread, said Mr Field should concentrate on tackling child poverty rather than attacking pressure groups.

She said: "Gingerbread does not promote or glamorise any form of family type but supports the one in four British families now headed by a single mum or dad.

"Most single parents did not choose to be raising their children alone any more than they chose the poverty they are in.

"Frank Field's efforts are best directed towards bringing down the scandalous rates of child poverty in this country."

Democratic Unionist David Simpson (Upper Bann) said the "key principles" of the Bill showed the Government's "heart was in the right place". But he told MPs: "I believe that the target of 2020 will not be achieved."

Mr Simpson said that before he came into politics he thought child poverty mainly affected developing countries.

"But from coming into politics I was astounded at the number of children, right across the whole of the UK, that are in poverty. It was a real eye-opener for me."

He said he agreed with much of Mr Field's arguments and said it was important to find the "root cause" of poverty in the country.

Tory Graham Stuart (Beverley and Holderness) said he recognised the Government had invested in early years childcare and had a "genuine" commitment to early intervention.

But he said: "When we have a Labour Government that says it is there to eradicate child poverty, little would they imagine that they would be sitting there smug and proud of their record while in fact the number of children with the very lowest incomes, not below 60% - the technical description of relative poverty - but below 40% of median income, what has happened to that number?

"That is at its highest level for 25 years. That is the reality - the poorest are poorer under Labour."

Junior work and pensions minister Helen Goodman dismissed the demands for fresh targets as "unnecessary" and insisted income poverty and material deprivation were at the heart of the Bill.

Opening third reading debate, Ms Goodman said the Bill would give "renewed impetus" for the Government to deliver on its goals of combating child poverty.

"In these difficult economic times a focus on tackling child poverty is even more important," she said.

Mr Selous said the eradication of child poverty was a vitally important objective but the Government's real aspiration was only to achieve child poverty levels that were amongst the best in Europe.

Mr Webb said the Bill was welcome but attacked the Government's "poverty of ambition" on the issue.

The Bill, he said, "raises the political price of failing to tackle child poverty".

Mocking the Tories' record on the issue, Mr Webb added: "The idea that if the problem is child poverty the Conservative Party is the answer is amazing."

Tory John Howell (Henley) said he was concerned about giving the courts a role in policy.

There was a potential for "judges making economic policy rather than the Chancellor of the Exchequer - though having seen the pre-budget report today maybe judges couldn't do a worse job".

The Bill was given an unopposed third reading and now goes to the House of Lords.