Government Urged to ‘Stop Ignoring’ Plight of Single Parents as it Begins Work to Combat UK’s Child Poverty Crisis

On Wednesday, the new Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson told the Labour conference that the future lives of children shouldn’t come down to “luck” and that “no child” should grow up in poverty in modern Britain.

Government estimates in April, for 2022/23, found that was the situation for 4.3 million youngsters – 30% of all children in the UK – and that almost 70% of them lived in working families. The number was up 700,000 on the previous year, with high inflation and the war in Ukraine blamed.

Gordon Brown, writing in The Guardian in May, suggested the reasons went far deeper, and had existed for far longer. Mass unemployment and social security cuts under Margaret Thatcher, Brexit, and COVID-19 all played a part before the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion. Then regular freezes in child benefit began, the former PM continued, blanket cuts in means-tested benefits, a freeze in working-age benefits, the removal of the “family premium” element of tax credits, and the limitation of children’s benefits to two children per family. 

Although Keir Starmer’s first King’s Speech, in July, contained no specific measures to address child poverty, reportedly “angering” dozens of his own MPs, a Child Poverty Taskforce was announced. It will hear from struggling families, front-line staff, and charities to form a strategy to be revealed in Spring 2025. 

While the news was well-received, organisations supporting single parents worry the voices of single parents will be left out of the conversation. Some 44% of children in lone- parent families in the UK are living in poverty, compared to 25% for children in two-parent families.

“Policies on alleviating poverty aren’t aimed at single parents,” Hannah Cascarino, a single parent to an eight-year-old daughter who is currently being assessed for autism, explained to Byline Times. “They’re aimed toward a two-person household.”

Working 15 hours a week, and receiving disability benefits and Universal Credit, Hannah is desperately trying to hold everything together for her child, but finding it overwhelmingly difficult.

I’ve had to use food banks and rely on the school for uniform. I’ve used the household support fund to buy food and pay for electricity, and our local fund for a new boiler and fridge when mine broke. There is no money spare

Hannah Cascarino, single parent

Ten single parent organisations have written to Phillipson, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, urging the Government to include single parents in the taskforce strategy meetings.

“We instigated this joint letter to the ministers because we see time and again single parents are overlooked when policy is being developed,” Ruth Talbot of Single Parent Rights, told Byline Times.

Single parents can’t keep being ignored when policy is designed, or we will keep being pushed into poverty

Ruth Talbot, Single Parent Rights

Talbot blames “the political choices made by the previous government” for the stark numbers of children in lone-parent families being in poverty, noting that austerity policies “disproportionately impacted single parent families”.

Satwat Rehman of One Parent Families Scotland, who also signed the letter, told Byline Times that policies like the benefit cap, two-child policy, and conditionality and sanctions “actually increased child poverty”.

For the 66% of single parents who are employed in the UK, their jobs aren’t necessarily a road out of poverty. They often deal with discrimination or inflexibility in the workplace that prevents them from progressing and making more money, or they fall through a social security net that doesn’t catch single parent families. 

According to Talbot, 73% of families with children that get Universal Credit are single parents, meaning they are disproportionately impacted by social security policies. 

Over half of those impacted by the two-child benefit limit, created to increase the number of people in work, are single parents, and 25% have a child under three. 

“It’s similar with the benefit cap,” Talbot said. “Almost three quarters of those impacted are single parent families, and this isn’t surprising when you realise that the £793 that families must earn to avoid being capped is identical for both single parents and couples, meaning – in effect – single parents are having to earn double what an individual in a couple must to avoid being capped, and they must do this with no support from a partner.”

Talbot describes the the social security system as a “safety net riddled with holes”.

As an example she cited the increase in work requirements for lead carers, the majority of whom are single parents, which came into effect in May 2024, saying it didn’t safeguard single parents like it did couples. If work requirements aren’t met, the parent may receive a reduction in benefit payments. 

“While a couple could have one parent stay at home and the other meet their joint earnings requirement, a single parent has no choice but to meet the requirements alone,” Talbot said, adding that the Conservatives had moved away from a “needs” system to one “designed to try and punish families for not being able to meet earning requirements”.

For single parents who want to work, but currently aren’t, Talbot says they face ineffective “employment support” and a flawed childcare infrastructure that creates further barriers to getting a job.

Julie Hawkins, of Single Mums Business Network and a single mother herself, says lone- parents can’t simply increase their hours in work to earn more money – they often don’t have a support network to take care of their children, and childcare is either unavailable or too expensive. 

And for those single parents who are disabled or are carers, accessing childcare is even harder. Whereas couples with one parent out of work due to disability or being a carer can still access the childcare funding if their partner works, unemployed disabled single parents, and single parent carers, can’t.

The cost of living crisis, exorbitant childcare fees, employment barriers, and the basic rate of social security at a historic low, have all contributed to 76% of single parents struggling with debt, some of which is the fault of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). 

Jane Wardle, a single mum in Darlington, had a debt of £24,800 to the DWP due to an error it made while she was getting her PhD. When she was informed about the overpayment she had to repay, her Universal Credit was stopped. 

“I’m trying to survive on one income in a cost-of-living crisis,” the 39-year-old told Byline Times. “And then you have these overpayments thrown at you. It’s constant stress.”

Hawkins said many single parents are consumed with simply trying to survive, and for some it’s too much: “I’ve personally witnessed half a dozen suicides triggered by financial pressures.”

Research by the charity, Gingerbread, highlighted that single parents are twice as likely to have felt depressed because of money worries than other UK adults, and 88% felt worried about the rises in prices of essentials over the last 12 months.

Ultimately, it is children who have the most to lose growing up in poverty.

“Physically, children in poverty often face malnourishment and poor living conditions, which can lead to chronic health issues and significantly impact their emotional well-being, sometimes resulting in depression and other mental health challenges,” Rehman, of One Parent Families Scotland, said. 

In the letter, the signatories have urged the Government to consider single parents in each of the thematic meetings held and requested a specific meeting to discuss single parent poverty to ensure the Child Poverty Taskforce strategy addresses the specific needs of these families. 

“The child poverty strategy development process represents a huge opportunity for this Government to transform the lives of a generation of children,” Talbot concluded.

“Excluding single parents from this process risks squandering this opportunity and leaving millions of children to live in poverty, harming not only their future, but their children’s futures too.”