In my constituency of Eastbourne, one in four households with children is headed by a single parent. This mirrors the diversity of modern families across Britain, where families come in all shapes and sizes, and reinforces my commitment to support and promote policies which enable each and every one of these families to balance work with bringing up their kids.

I am proud of the coalition government’s record on job creation and bringing down unemployment – reflected in the latest statistics out last week which showed that unemployment had fallen to its lowest level in nearly six years – but recognise that there is still more for us to do to ensure that everyone is able to benefit from the economic upturn.

This week, single parent charity Gingerbread has published a new report, Paying the Price: The long road to recovery, which highlights single parents’ experiences in work and of finding work. In reading the report, I was struck by how motivated single parents are to work and support their families – indeed 60% of single parents are already in work – a fact which is reinforced by the stories I hear from the single parents I meet at my constituency surgeries.

However, the report also identifies some of the challenges facing single parents, who can often struggle to earn their way out of poverty on only one income. In particular, the report highlights that:

• 39% of working single parents surveyed are in low-paid jobs, compared with 21% of workers nationally
• Many single parents can’t find the hours they want to work – the proportion of single parents working part-time but who want full-time work is double what it was five years ago
• 1 in 4 working single parents surveyed has increased their working hours in order to boost their earnings, and one in six now has more than one job
• 1 in 4 non-working single parents surveyed left their last paid job due to job insecurity – that is, due to lower wages, fewer hours, redundancy or temporary work ending.

The testimonies in Gingerbread’s report reflect my own experiences working as an MP. In my surgeries I regularly hear about the immense lengths single parents go to in order to pay household bills or kit out their children for school. I am also a long-term supporter of Gingerbread’s “Make it work for single parents” campaign, and this report serves as an important reminder that more needs to be done to ensure the UK labour market works for single parents.

In particular, I support Gingerbread’s calls for:

• Increased investment in skills training for single parents to help them find jobs that pay a decent wage
• Further work with employers to develop flexible working opportunities across a greater range and level of jobs, as well as to incentivise job security
• Making the most of universal credit’s phased implementation to pilot specific actions that maximise work incentives for single parents.

Since I was elected to serve Eastbourne in 2010, I have been passionate about supporting my constituents into employment, and am proud of my record in doing this here in the constituency. Gingerbread’s report provides a useful focus for us nationally on a group – single parents – who may face particular barriers into work. I am pleased to be supporting their Make it work campaign to tackle these barriers and ensure that single parents, wherever they may live in the country, are able to successfully balance work and looking after their children.

Photo by USAG- Humphrey

* Stephen Lloyd was MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon until 2015. He was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education. In March 2013 the Group published a report called ‘RE: the truth unmasked’ on the supply of and support for RE teachers. In June 2013 Stephen tabled an Early Day Motion on RE’s role in tackling extremism.