Arguing against cuts in lone parent benefits: reclaiming the desert ground in the UK

Abstract

Politicians from the centre-left tradition have been highly critical of government policy that has reduced lone parent social security benefits. However, the arguments here are that these critics have undermined distributive justice arguments against the cuts because they have conceded too much to a government which (a) stresses the value of paid over unpaid work and (b) socially constructs lone parents as being ‘welfare dependent’ and ‘non-participators’. Instead, justifications of increased benefits to lone parents would be more securely based on desert arguments, i.e. a lone parent's contribution to reproductive labour and social stability deservesto be more fully recognized.