Home Educators across the Uk are being urged to write to their MPs to protest about forthcoming changes to the rules for benefits for lone parents in the UK.  As from November 2008, lone parents are required to switch to the Jobseekers’ Allowance when their youngest child reaches the age of 12, with the prospect of this age being dropped to seven in the future (2010). 

For lone parents who are caring for children with disabilities, or are home educating, these changes to the rules are very significant.  Transferring to Jobseekers’ Allowance means making oneself available for work, and may be patently impossible in the case of a child with complex needs.

I wrote to my MP some months ago when this change was originally discussed in the media, and received some very unsatisfactory replies from the Minister, Caroline Flint.  These seemed not to understand the problems with parents with children with severe disabilities may face in trying to find carers willing or able to care for their child.  In answer to my questions about home educating parents, the Minister suggested that home education need not take place within traditional school hours and therefore could be fitted around the required work - a useful reply for those already trying to argue that case with their local authority, but not much use for those who have children with complex needs.

Many families decide reluctantly to home educate because the alternatives they have been offered are unsuitable for the needs of their children, and some have such complex needs that some sort of respite for the carers in the family is an unattainable dream.  It seems completely outrageous that the Government should expect lone parents in that sort of situation to magically find appropriate (and affordable) childcare for their children in order to free them to take up employment. 

It was strongly suggested in the White Paper which was published last December, that parents fleeing from Domestic violence, parents caring for disabled children and home educating parents should not be subject to "increased conditionality".  That is, they should not be held to the change in rules which is proposed.  However, to date there has been no acceptance that flexibility must be worked into the arrangements for these children, and the situation remains that after Novermber 2008, lone parents must register for Jobseekers’ Allowance and therefore, be free to take up employment, irrespective of their commitments in the home.

If you are in the UK, please write to your MP, soliciting support for these families, and urging them to ask the government to incorporate some flexibility for parents caring for disabled children or home educating.  You may like to use the Write to them website, which assists you in contacting your local representatives.

For more information look at the Freedom for Children to Grow website.