10. Conclusion
Low income and reliance on SA among lone mothers is extensive, a fact that is well known and extensively researched in the literature. However, the facts that many lone mothers do not experience low income and half of those who experience low income exit within two years, give reasons to hope that properly targeted policies can make a difference.
In general, a higher level of education was found to be a positive factor. However, the evidence is less than persuasive. As our results show, more than one-third of low income lone mothers have a post-secondary certificate or degree. Also, a higher level of education does not seem to have any benefits in terms of shortening SA spells.
The fact that half of SA recipients exit within the first two years suggests that policies should be well targeted. However, waiting for several years to ascertain who are long term recipients is not the best targeting strategy. Not only would valuable time be wasted, but there is evidence that the longer individuals stay on SA, the more difficult it is to exit.
A better strategy is to keep probing the characteristics of SA recipients that are associated with long spells and develop programs that are targeted to those characteristics. Our results indicate that a good starting point would be to focus more heavily on lone mothers with: other high risk characteristics (recent immigrants, disabled, and Aboriginal); pre-school age children; or those who are high school dropouts.
And since lack of paid work is a common factor among low income and SA recipients, the main focus should be in providing employment services (such as referrals and employment counseling), coupled with a more generous treatment of earnings for those with at least a minimum attachment to the labour force.
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