Introduction

Work invariably brought benefits to all family members, particularly when coupled with training opportunities, even when the work itself was relatively low paid and low skilled. It expanded family incomes and broadened horizons; it generated social contact and gave children positive role models. In this chapter we summarise the evidence from the 200 families about their work experience, the evolution of jobs in their families over the course of our visits and the links between parents’ work ambitions and training opportunities. We then explore the parents’ direct accounts of work, studying and training, using parents’ own words to convey their experiences, including the work history and prospects of ‘work-poor’ families. The work background of the families clearly influences why some parents do not work, including inter-generational worklessness. The impact of working tax credits, childcare worries, knock-on effects on benefits and associated problems in relation to jobs, suggest what might help.

Parents who did work were generally positive about the experience even though it created extra pressures in their lives. Work was an ambition that many parents had within themselves, as well as a strong goal of government to get more parents into work. As children got older, this allowed mothers more scope to work, and over the course of our visits there was also an expansion in jobs and training, the introduction of tax credits, offering new incentives for part-time, low-paid but vital service jobs. These jobs in public services particularly benefited mothers, and this chapter draws mainly on evidence from mothers.

Not all parents were able to work, some through ill health or caring responsibilities (discussed in Chapter Six), some through tenuous work histories and lack of experience or confidence, some through a fear of losing the safety-net of benefits without a guarantee of continuing reliable work, the well-known poverty trap.