CAMPAIGNERS staged a protest at Bolton Job Centre today against the Job Seekers' Allowance.

Activists from Bolton's Centre for the Unemployed were joined by campaigners from other areas who all claim the allowance is penalising single parents and the poor.

Denise Lonsdale, a voluntary worker at the centre, says the JSA and the Government's New Deal is forcing unemployed people into poverty pay and is an attempt to force single parents off benefits.

She said: "The New Deal promised by the Government is nothing more than a scam to keep the poorest people poor.

"The jobs single parents are offered are often low paid and, even with the best of intentions, employers cannot afford the child care expenses."

She gave examples of cases in which single parent families have been left without benefits for weeks.

In one case, a man was awarded custody of his child and could no longer claim Job Seekers' Allowance because he had to look after the child and was not available for work.

But he could not claim Income Support either until the Child Benefit was signed over to him from his ex-wife and the process took more than eight weeks.

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