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28 September 2009
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Single parents have continued to move into work in the past year but the recession is hitting their families hard as fuel and food costs rise, and as working hours and child maintenance payments are cut, warns national charity Gingerbread.
New figures commissioned by the charity[i] show the slightly higher single parent employment rate is limited to those with older children and is not consistent across the country: in the North West, East Midlands and Wales the single parent employment rate dipped between 2008 and 2009.[ii]
These figures support preliminary research findings by Gingerbread that suggest that many single parents with older children are trying hard to get jobs in order to avoid new JSA changes that put them at risk of benefit sanctions if they do not seek work.
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Rising food and fuel costs inevitably take a bigger bite out of the low weekly budgets of single parent families (single parents spend over 30 per cent of their budgets on these items) so even those single parents who are able to work are struggling against the slump. Gingerbread's Single Parent Helpline is taking more and more calls from single mums and dads - in and out of work – who are worried about paying the bills.
To reach more of those who need advice or information, the charity is launching a new helpline number – on 0808 802 0925 – which is free to single parents calling from all landlines and all major mobile networks.
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Launching the new number and the charity’s Recession Briefing today Gingerbread’s Chief Executive Fiona Weir said:
“ Many single parent families are facing financial hardship in the recession, not least because fuel and food costs take almost a third of their weekly budget. Parents calling the Gingerbread Single Parent Helpline are saying they are down to the bone. We felt it was important to make calls to the helpline free for all single parents, and from today Gingerbread will pay the cost of the calls.”
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Gingerbread is also calling for more Government action to protect vulnerable families during recession. Working with the Campaign to End Child Poverty we are calling for:
- new ways of enabling parents to work in 'short hours jobs' so they can earn more income while working around childcare or school times.
- more investment in child benefit and child tax credit
- more help with the costs of childcare
- wider entitlements to free school meals
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Fiona Weir, Gingerbread Chief Executive said:
"Previous recessions have left generations of children blighted by damaging and persistent poverty. It's really important that Government acts to make sure that children in vulnerable families do not bear the brunt of recession again – or society the huge long-term costs that would be the legacy of such a short-sighted approach. "
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Key Facts from Gingerbread’s Recession Briefing:
- Half of single parents are poor and their children are twice as likely to be poor as those in couple-families
- Childcare costs have risen by 4% from last year
- Food costs are up 4%
- Fuel costs are up 8%
- Low pay and high costs mean one third of children with a working single parent are still poor
- 70% of single parents surveyed by Gingerbread said they had to go without something for themselves to make ends meet and one third had to go without something for their children
- Thirty six per cent had had to borrow money to stay afloat
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- The overall single parent employment rate went up 0.4% last year to 56.7% but fell slightly for those with younger children. Seventy -two per cent of single parents with a youngest child aged 13 are working compared to 36% of those with a youngest aged two.
- Most single parents can’t afford a mortgage and therefore aren’t benefiting from lower interest rates
- Working single parents are usually in part-time, low-paid jobs and face an extra risk of having their hours slashed
- Only one third of single parents is getting any child maintenance and in the recession we are hearing from more single parents whose former partner has been laid off and has stopped making the payments for their children.
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Notes to Editors:
Welfare reforms introduced last year mean single parents whose youngest child is 12 or over must now look for work or have their benefits cut. Later this month the change will be extended to those with a youngest aged 10 and over.
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