Next week (26 November), Chancellor Rachel Reeves will present the 2025 Autumn Budget. This is a key chance for the government to set out its vision for the next year and provide an update on the state of the UK economy. Importantly, the Budget also presents a crucial opportunity to improve the lives of the UK’s 2 million single-parent households, who are twice as likely to live in poverty compared to couple-parent households.

Much of the media debate surrounding the Budget has focused on whether the government will use this moment to scrap the Two-Child Limit and the Benefit Cap – changes that Gingerbread has long called for as part of the End Child Poverty Coalition and our #SupportNotPunish campaign. These policies push more children into poverty every day and single-parent families are disproportionately impacted. Scrapping both polices would lift around 400,000 children out of poverty and reduce the depth of poverty for a further 950,000 children.

However, the reforms that single-parent families need go beyond these policies alone, and the Budget provides a vital opportunity for the government to also address some of the other challenges that single parents face, from childcare provision to wider issues with our social security system.

What is Gingerbread calling for:

Through conversations with single parents across the country, we’ve highlighted three key areas where the government could take action in this budget to ease the pressures on single-parent families, and reduce the risk of more falling into poverty:

1. Reform the social security system so that it supports rather than punishes: This includes addressing the inadequate levels of social security and maintaining the value of payment through regular uprating. The government should also review the impact and effectiveness of the current Universal Credit (UC) conditionality regime and the benefits of abolishing UC sanctions entirely.
2. Remove the Two-Child Limit and Benefits Cap entirely
3. Improve childcare and flexible work options: This includes expanding the eligibility for the 30 hours of funded childcare to include single parents in education and training, and incentivising employers to create more flexible and part-time roles that enable single parents to balance work and caring responsibilities.

We’re also keen to see stronger disability support in the budget. Around a third of single parents are disabled, so any changes in this area will impact a significant number of families.

These actions are just the starting point. There’s much more the government can do to support single-parent families. For example, increased funding for affordable housing and other essential public services would bring real benefits to single parents.

What’s Next?

Once the budget is formally announced next week in full, we’ll be reviewing the details and analysing what they mean for single-parent families.

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