Social disinvestment and vulnerable groups in Europe in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The case of lone parents in Scotland

This report has been prepared for the European Commission Horizons 2020 funded project RE-InVEST - Rebuilding An Inclusive Value based Europe of Solidarity and Trust Through Social Investments. The eco­nomic crisis of 2008 has impacted across Europe in multiple ways through unemployment and changing labour market, poverty, and reduction in service provision. The RE-InVEST consortium is exploring the social investment strategy of the European Commission in response to the financial crisis of 2008 and the impacts on vulnerable groups. The RE-InVEST consortium is looking at the impacts on human rights and capabilities across 12 coun­tries (13 regions) covered by the project. RE-InVEST as project looks to provide building blocks based on solidarity, trust and social investment. An important aspect of this process is giving space to vulnerable groups through participative methods and a crossing of knowledge through lived experiences. This is con­ducted through the Participatory Action Research with Human Rights and Capability approaches. This research explores the demographic group of lone parents in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Lone parents historically have faced multiple barriers and have experienced vulnerability. This research explores the impacts of the crisis on this group. The report outlines a number of key areas including the impact on individual and collective capabilities, resilience and human rights exploring this through pre crisis and beyond the crisis. Participatory tools such as drawing and modelling were employed to utilise the PAHCA approach. The qualitative evidence provides illustrative material on the effects and experiences of the financial crisis and includes Biographical Narrative interviews conducted with two individuals Julia and Lucy involved in the crossing of knowledge process. The research indicated through the crossing of knowledge process utilising PAHRCA methodology that lone parent human rights had been eroded and that peoples capabilities ‘what they were able to do and be’ had been negatively affected. This erosion had reinforced a shift where there had been a loss of trust within society and democracy however this was counter balanced within political activism across this group. Austerity measures and a changing social protection system had created a difficult climate for lone parents to exercise their individual and collective capabilities and to have their human rights realised. Being lone parents meant that they were under increased pressure to meet the needs of them and their families, and their choices had become restricted in terms of jobs, housing and access to support. The economic crash of 2009 had resulted in an increasingly precarious labour market with a rise in zero hour contracts and under employment across Scotland. Lone parents faced specific barriers such as access to child care. Obtaining and sustaining employment was very much dependent on accessing affordable childcare and an emphasis was placed on the need for employers to be flexible to individual circumstances. Lone parents faced particular pressure points with this. This was borne out against a climate of privatisa­tion of active labour market support (ALMP) or the work programme and of increasingly conditionality in welfare support in particular activation benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance (JSA)