Most single-parent families and social policy
Most single-parent families are affected by the social policy across the world, especially in the contemporary society. Research conducted by Saez and Stantcheva (2016) indicates that in most countries across the globe, single-parent families have a high rate of poverty as compared to other families. People should understand that many kids spend most of their childhood growing up in a single-parent family that does not afford most of their needs like the other families (Saez \u0026 Stantcheva, 2016, 24). There is clear proof that poverty is dangerous to both children and families. Welfare states and their social policies are in a steady advancement, presently having the budget limitation and modern social threat. Therefore, the new social dangers include, but not limited to, lack of social security, merging jobs, kin and single parenthood and it affects many people since they do not have the same financial ability.
Researching the social policy context of single parent's families
Researching the social policy context of single parent's families is critical since the families represent a different social danger that has a lot of adverse outcomes. In many countries, active labor markets plan to look at the programs they need to implement to reduce the unemployment experienced by many people. However, the programs are mainly focused on addressing the problems faced by single-parent families which vary across every part of the continent (Van, 2015, 210). Social investment approaches initiate rules that prepare people for economic independence even though there are economic differences among the people. However, there are still adverse outcomes for families which are single-parent with low income and a lot of obligations for their children.
Significance of social policy on diminishing poverty
Researchers have adversely looked at the significance of social policy on diminishing poverty, especially on the single-parent families. Earlier research laid most of their concern on the fiscal plan, after realizing that taxes and transfer of money efficiently decrease the poverty of single-parent families in many nations (Widerquist, 2017, 95). Other studies, however, addressed if the different types of social rules have also decreased single parent poverty like family plans, educating kids in their early stages, better healthcare, creating job opportunities and regulations of the labor market. Additionally, research indicates that social policies affect single-parenthood families and they have emphasized on revenue poverty and not other issues like disparity, material scarcity and the wellbeing of the children (Maldonado \u0026 Nieuwenhuis, 2015, 415). As such, it clearly shows that there is still an abundant to advance our knowledge about social policies which affect single-parent families and which focus on the issues of single-parenting to ensure that families bring together some social systems.
Theory-driven empirical research on social policies
There are different theory-driven empirical researches which indicate the social policies which affect the single-parent families. For instance, the social policy outcomes indicate the descriptions and the analyses on how social systems affect single-parent families (Beckfield et al., 2015, 227). Some of the questions which are addressed in theory are the social policies which are implemented for single-parent families. Also, the hypothesis also looks at whether the single-parent families gain from the universal welfare state plans or from plans which target specific requirements of the families (Brady \u0026 Bostic, 2015, 268). The research indicated that these policies which are implemented affect the welfare of the single-parent families since they do not have the same financial capability like other families which have both parents who work together towards the same goals.
The social policy responses
Another theory of the social policy responses was also implemented with the descriptions of the social policy innovations, and it still focused on single-parent families. Some of the questions it addressed were how the social policies are adopted for those families and how they are debated. The research aimed at identifying the determinants used to state the adopting policies and how they should be implemented. It was also critical to determine if there was any trend used to define how the Social Investment relates to the procedures set for single-parent families (Abramovitz, 2017, 45). Therefore, it was clear that there are no rules and regulations which are adopted in establishing the social policies since they are set for everyone and not for the single-parent families and other families who have both parents.
Benefits of parental employment for single-parent families
Proponents of changes in the welfare plan have stated that the parental employment is an advantage to the children since they provide them with the role models. They work and provide a routine for their families. However, there is also a reduced parental opportunity for the parents to spend most of their time with their kids. Parents are unable to monitor the daily practices of their kids especially single-parents. If the income of the kids with such parents increase, it can be better since the welfare of the children may also increase. Therefore, there should be some implementations of the policy welfare to work policy to favor single-parents since they require a lot of parental care for their kids, time and proper care than other people. There is a need to have plans which favor their practices especially time allocated for their schedule to ensure that they get enough time for their families. Also, their financial welfare should be addressed, and they should not be handled like other families.
References
Abramovitz, M., 2017. Regulating the lives of women: Social welfare policy from colonial times to the present. Routledge.
Brady, D. and Bostic, A., 2015. Paradoxes of social policy: Welfare transfers, relative poverty, and redistribution preferences. American Sociological Review, 80(2), pp.268-298.
Beckfield, J., Bambra, C., Eikemo, T.A., Huijts, T., McNamara, C. and Wendt, C., 2015. An institutional theory of welfare state effects on the distribution of population health. Social Theory " Health, 13(3-4), pp.227-244.
Maldonado, L.C. and Nieuwenhuis, R., 2015. Family policies and single parent poverty in 18 OECD countries, 1978–2008. Community, Work " Family, 18(4), pp.395-415.
Saez, E. and Stantcheva, S., 2016. Generalized social marginal welfare weights for optimal tax theory. American Economic Review, 106(1), pp.24-45.
Van Lancker, W., Ghysels, J. and Cantillon, B., 2015. The impact of child benefits on single mother poverty: Exploring the role of targeting in 15 E European countries. International Journal of Social Welfare, 24(3), pp.210-222.
Widerquist, K., O'Connor, A., Williams, W., Hollister, R., Watts, H. and Levine, R.A., 2017. A retrospective on the negative income tax experiments: Looking back at the most innovate field studies in social policy. In The ethics and economics of the basic income guarantee (pp. 95-106). Routledge.
