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"In late 2005 and early 2006, there was a gap of 15 percentage points in the rate of participation in paid work by mothers, according to whether they lived in a family with a partner or were living as a lone parent. This estimate is based on the UK Labour Force Survey... Around half of this gap reflects mothers in couple families working in jobs where their hours are between one and 15 per week. It is much more common for mothers in couple families to work these hours than it is for lone parents to do so. These jobs are referred to as 'mini-jobs' in this report... According to the Families and Children Study (FACS), in autumn 2005, 12 per cent of mothers in a couple family did this type of job, as compared with five per cent of lone parents. This research project developed from a proposal that it would be worth looking at the ways in which the mothers in couple families used these jobs, to see whether it was possible to suggest policy arrangements that might enable more lone parents to increase their participation in paid work by using mini-jobs in a similar way."--P. 1.