Featured News
New report: The Single Parent Debt Trap
Posted 8 February 2021
New report shows single parents more likely to experience problem debt and to live in persistent poverty. Many forced to go without food to make repayments.
News
Read the latest news on Gingerbread’s work and the issues affecting single parent families today.
New findings on Universal Credit
Posted 16 May 2018
Gingerbread has been working with single parent families to understand the experience and reality of Universal Credit (UC) as it continues to be rolled out. We outline progress against the Government’s objectives to: make work pay personalise support simplify...
Unfair benefit sanctions push single parents further away from employment
Posted 17 April 2018
Unfair benefit sanctions can result in single parents being less likely to find employment and take a severe financial and emotional toll on single parents and their children, with the situation set to worsen under...Unhelpful and unfair? also shows the first signs that Universal Credit risks making this situation worse, as more single parents – including those with very young children and those who are in work – are...
Benefit cap court judgment means “more misery” for single parents with babies and toddlers
Posted 15 March 2018
Today, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the government concluding that the benefit cap is not discriminating against single parents with children aged under two.[1] Laura Dewar, Policy Officer at Gingerbread, comments: “Gingerbread is bitterly...
BBC Radio 4 appeal with Robert Peston
Posted 25 February 2018
As well as being an experienced journalist, writer and presenter, Robert is a supporter of Gingerbread and a single parent himself. After losing his wife to cancer, Robert became a single parent to his son and...This year, Gingerbread turns 100. We’ve fought for a century to support single parents and their children and while great progress has been made, there is still more work to do. Single parent employment is at...How to listen to the appeal The appeal will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 25 February at 7.55am. Listen live to Radio 4. The appeal will then air again on Sunday 25 February at...
Centenary report shows more single parents working, yet poverty still rising
Posted 21 February 2018
Our new report, One in four: single parent families in the UK, has been released to mark 100 years of Gingerbread’s work. In the centenary report, we profile single parents in the UK today and how...
Shortlist announced for the ‘One in Four’ new writer competition
Posted 7 February 2018
We received hundreds of submissions, and yesterday, announced the shortlisted entries. The shortlisted entries will be judged by a panel, and one will be selected as a winner and receive a publishing contract with Trapeze...
Gingerbread talks to BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour
Posted 1 February 2018
In 1918 The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child was created and now in 2018, under the name Gingerbread, we still provide support for single parent families in England and Wales. To celebrate...
Gingerbread welcomes new trustees
Posted 10 January 2018
We are delighted to announce the appointment of five new trustees to further strengthen our board and help shape Gingerbread’s work as it enters its centenary year. Our board of trustees is vital to the success of...
Budget announcements on Universal Credit welcome but not enough to make work pay
Posted 22 November 2017
The Government’s second budget of the year has made welcome and long-needed changes. But it has failed to reverse harsh cuts that are falling on the very families it has promised to support. Responding to the...