“…As social investment strategies focus on employment, and single-parent employment is often inadequate, improving single parents' wellbeing based on such strategies may not be an easy task. For instance, even though active labour market policies were found to be associated with higher employment among single parents in Germany, France, Sweden and the UK, their poverty rates were not reduced (Jaehrling et al, 2014). The 'trilemma of activation' holds that it is impossible to simultaneously reduce the need for cash transfer policies by stimulating employment, avert overly intrusive policy administration and monitoring, and ensure that the unemployed are not poor (Cantillon, 2011;Vandenbroucke & Vleminckx, 2011).…”