Westminster Hall Debate on Child Poverty, 6th March 2007 – A briefing from One Parent Families

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Westminster Hall Debate on Child Poverty, 6th March 2007 - A briefing from One Parent Families

Introduction

One Parent Families is the national charity supporting the three million children who live with a lone parent today. We aim to tackle the poverty, stigma and social exclusion still faced by too many lone parents and their children, and are a member of the End Child Poverty coalition.

Poverty in one-parent families

Children living in lone parent families make up 43 per cent of all poor children,[1] despite only 23 per cent of all children living in this family type.[2] Although the risk of poverty for children in such families has fallen substantially, from 62 per cent in 1996/7, the risk of poverty for children in lone parent households still stood at 48 per cent in 2004/05.[3]

But there is no automatic linkage between high levels of lone parenthood and high levels of child poverty. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, occupying the four top places in Unicef’s recent assessment of the material well-being of children, are four of the six countries with the highest number of children brought up with a lone parent.[4]

Policy has made a real difference to the lives of children in lone parent families in recent years, but action is needed now to ensure that the vital target to halve child poverty by 2010 can be met. For lone parents, action in three areas will be vital:

Tackling barriers to work and making work pay;
Getting child maintenance working; and
Doing more to meet the costs of children.

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[1] DWP (2006) Households Below Average Income (HBAI) 1994/95-2004/05 available at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/hbai/hbai2005/contents.asp

[2] Lyon, N. Barnes, M. and Sweiry, D. (2006) op cit.

[3] DWP (2006) op cit.

[4] Unicef (2007) Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well being in rich countries Unicef, Innocenti Research Centre.

March07-Westminster-Hall-Debate-Child-Poverty (PDF 27KB)

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