Jobcenter-Betreuung von Alleinerziehenden im Vergleich zu Eltern in Paarbedarfsgemeinschaften

Abstract

"Single parents have to manage the double burden of providing for their family and caring for children without the support of a partner in the household, and are therefore considered to be a population group with special social policy needs. In 2022, about one third of single-parent households with minor children were dependent on unemployment benefit II, while only 6.3 per cent of couple households with minor children received benefits. This research report therefore uses survey data from the panel "Labour Market and Social Security" for the years 2008 to 2021 to examine descriptively how single mothers are supported by job centers compared to mothers and fathers in couple households, what support and counselling services they receive and how they rate the job centers’ support. Only unemployment benefit II recipients who are not employed subject to social security contributions are included in the analysis. A comparison of the three groups of parents first shows that single mothers have on average fewer and older children than parents in couple households. In addition, a high share of all three groups of parents does not have professional qualifications, whereby this share is somewhat lower for single mothers. Recipients of unemployment benefit II are obliged to look for work in order to reduce or end their benefit receipt. However, there are several exceptions to this obligation. Overall, single mothers significantly more often state that they are required to search for a job compared to mothers in couple households, but less often compared to fathers. The age of the youngest child plays an important role here, as job centre support for single parents is similar to that for mothers in couple households when there is a young child to look after, but similar to that for fathers when the youngest child is at least three to five years old. Over the observation period, the proportion of parents required to look for work has declined for all groups, which may be due to the changing composition of benefit recipients. In the survey waves up to 2020, only a small share of parents has no contact to the job center and the majority of parents with a job search obligation receive counselling from the job center regarding their personal and work situation. In the wave surveyed in 2021, the effects of the Covid-19-pandemic are evident, as the proportion of individuals without contact to the job center rises sharply for all groups of parents, and the counselling incidence also drops. If the respondents indicate that they are exempt from job search obligations, the majority of mothers cite childcare responsibilities as the reason. For fathers in couple households, the most common reasons for an exemption are health restrictions and training. Looking at the support services provided by job center staff to jobseeking benefit claimants shows that single mothers receive similar, and in some cases more intensive support than parents in couple households. Compared to mothers in couple households, they are significantly more likely to be offered a job that is subject to social security contributions or training, as well as activation or placement vouchers; compared to fathers, they are more likely to be offered a minijob. In contrast, fathers are more likely than (single) mothers to be offered further education, retraining and integration or German courses, although this could partly be due to fathers’ greater need for (language) support. Job center staff can also refer benefit recipients to external counselling services if these are necessary for employment integration. Of the three types of counselling services considered, the greatest need among single mothers and parents in couple households is for a health assessment and for debt counselling, while the need for addiction counselling is low. For all groups of parents, but in particular for fathers, the proportion of individuals with an unmet need for counselling slightly exceeds the proportion of parents that received the respective counselling. Overall, all three groups of parents rate the support provided by job center staff as rather trustful and cooperative. However, they tend to not have the impression that they are being helped to develop a new perspective and also tend to disagree with the statement that they had conversations regarding the improvement of their labour market prospects. (Single) mothers show significantly lower approval ratings for these items than fathers, which might be because they are more often exempt from the job search obligation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Artmann, E. (2024): Jobcenter-Betreuung von Alleinerziehenden im Vergleich zu Eltern in Paarbedarfsgemeinschaften. (IAB-Forschungsbericht 03/2024), Nürnberg, 44 p. DOI:10.48720/IAB.FB.2403