Debate regarding family benefits and absent teenage fathers

Graham Allen MP this week introduced a debate on family benefits and absent teenage fathers.  He used the opportunity to highlight the fact that there is often an assumption that girls should take responsibility for avoiding unwanted pregnancy, and caring for the baby if they fail and that Nottingham has created a teenage pregnancy taskforce to address the issue.

He expressed his concern that most teenage mothers in Nottingham were raising their child on their own, and that relationships between teenage parents were generally unstable. He argued that teenage fathers are themselves children. “That is the central dilemma for social policy generally and the benefits system in particular,” he said. Allen urged the government to encourage teen fathers to do the best they can for their children, emotionally and financially. The new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission has the opportunity to make this agenda its own, he said.

Many young fathers feel that the benefits system is complicated and financially burdensome, he said. And, the system does not provide the social and emotional basis for fathers who have no chance of making payments, to make informed decisions. A “one-stop office” for young fathers could offer advice and support and a medium through which to make maintenance payments, he suggested.

Tackling teenage pregnancies and absentee fathers also requires supporting young people before pregnancy occurs. “If young people have the ability to interact, to learn and to resolve arguments without violence…it is virtually impossible to fail in terms of educational attainment, aspiration to work and raising a decent family,” he said.  And, more must be done to encourage teenage boys to delay sexual activity, Allen argued.

In response Kitty Usher, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), acknowledged that the benefits system does remain complex.  She said that the system must be simpler, well targeted and empowering but that the government recognises that families are more diverse than ever – Public services and the workplace must reflect those changes across society, Ussher said.

She noted that local services should take a “much more proactive approach to identifying young fathers” through the common assessment framework and targeted youth support arrangements and that the Welfare Reform Bill contains significant change on joint birth registration – an unmarried father’s name cannot appear on the birth certificate without his knowledge. “One aim of the joint birth registration provision is that an unmarried father who registers his child’s birth will acquire parental responsibility,” she said.  She also stressed that the Child Support Agency’s (CSA) role is to alleviate child poverty by ensuring that money flows to children.