ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with examining the policy environment for lone mothers in respect of paid work, care and transitions between periods of paid work and care-giving, in the second category of the classification developed in Chapter Four (Table 4. 4). That category has been termed the non-poor mothers group, and is composed solely of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is similar to Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom in having a preponderance of care-giving over paid work among lone mothers. In contrast to each of those countries, however, the Netherlands is also characterised by a relatively low risk of poverty for lone mothers undertaking full-time care. Thus, in this chapter, we will seek to establish whether policies around paid work, care-giving and transitions within the Netherlands are configured in such a way as to construct lone mothers as predominantly full-time carers as opposed to paid workers, and whether the quality of social rights attached to care-giving is of such a standard as to protect the majority of lone mothers who undertake caregiving on a full-time basis from poverty. As the sub-classification identified in Chapter Four demonstrated, the comparatively strong protection from poverty afforded to care-giving lone mothers in the Netherlands, also extends to their counterparts in paid work. Thus, in this chapter, we will also seek to determine whether the quality of social rights attached to paid work is congruent with comparatively low rates of poverty among Dutch lone mothers when in employment. As with the preceding chapter, the examination of the policy environment is split into three parts: the caring regime, the paid work regime, and transitional arrangements.
