Universal Credit, lone mothers and poverty: some context and challenges for social work with children and families

Universal Credit is a streamlined benefits delivery system initially introduced in the UK in 2008. Conditionality-based welfare policies are increasingly international in scale, and are now widely adopted by neoliberal governments on the basis that paid employment offers the most efficacious route out of poverty for citizen-subjects. Numerous studies suggest otherwise and highlight their negative impact upon the social rights, lived experiences and attempts to alleviate poverty for claimants. This article analyses the effect of the reformed benefit system and wider workfare policies upon lone mothers, including as a consequence of engagement with an ever-more stigmatising benefit system, and associated risks posed by sanctions or precarious low-paid employment. It highlights some of the consequences for social work with children and families of Universal Credit, including ongoing tensions and challenges created for the profession by the punitive policies of the workfare-oriented centaur state.