Prepare versus Repair? Combining parental leave and family allowances for social investment against single-parent poverty

Abstract

Social investment is an emerging paradigm for European welfare states, often described as an abandonment of tax-benefit systems with generous income ‘transfers’ in favour of ‘in-kind’ policies and services.The position of single-parent families directly relates to one of the major critiques of the social investment strategy. Despite efforts to improve employment and make work pay to prevent poverty, European welfare states have witnessed disappointing trends in poverty (Vandenbroucke and Vleminckx, 2011). Cantillon (2011) argued that social investment policies are better suited for work-rich households than work- poor households at the bottom of the income distribution. is critique begs the empirical question whether a transition to ‘in kind’ social investment policies can be sufficiently effective in improving employment to protect households against poverty, or that reducing transfers has rendered tax-benefit systems inadequate (cf. Nelson, 2011). We examine this in this article, focusing on family policies. Specifically, we assess whether social investment (reconciliation policies) is a more effective strategy than social protection (family allowances) for single-parent families.

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