Irish one-parent families fall below European average for purchasing power

One-parent households in Ireland have among the highest average incomes in the European Union when measured in strictly cash terms but fall well down the list in terms of actual purchasing power, according to statistics published by the Parliamentary Budget Office of the Oireachtas.

Organisations dealing with such families say the figures support the case they have been making for action in the budget to help them with improved social protection supports as well as further improvements in relation to the provision of services like childcare.

The figures, for 2022, show Irish one-parent households had an average income of €23,028, behind just Luxembourg, where the average was over €40,000 as well as Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands where the figures were far closer to Ireland’s.

When actual purchasing power was factored in, however, Ireland dropped to 12th of 27 in the table in the table, with purchasing power levels that were fractionally below both the EU and euro zone averages.

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The figures suggest that the one-parent families in Ireland are particularly dependent on social transfers, including direct Government supports, which are higher than European averages, but still struggle because of poorer public services and the high cost of living in the country.

The 2022 census figures recorded 182,395 one-parent families living in private households across the country, 155,583 of which involved mothers and their children.

“The vast majority – almost 90 per cent – of lone parent families are headed by women,” said National Women’s Council (NWC) director Orla O’Connor

“These figures highlight the very real difficulties faced by many of them in the current cost of living crisis.

“Due to the surplus available in Budget 2024, there is a unique opportunity to amend structural inequalities which affect women.

“NWC is calling for a public, affordable model of childcare akin to our public school system; a €25 increase across social welfare payments including the lone parents’ allowance; and the establishment of a statutory child maintenance agency. All of these measures would have a direct impact on the lives of lone parents.”

One Family Ireland, formerly Cherish, puts the total number of one-parent families in the State at nearly 220,000, a quarter of all families with children. Some 90,000 involve a single adult, 50,000 one who is widowed and 70,000 involve separated adults.

The organisation’s chief executive, Karen Kiernan, said: “The research shows that social transfers are essential in Ireland to keep one-parent families out of abject poverty. These look high in Ireland but because we’ve poor universal services in areas like health, housing, childcare and high VAT; poor families don’t do as well as other countries that have better services.

“Ireland lags behind the EU average in these families purchasing power and we know the vast majority of Ireland’s poorest children live in one-parent families. We hope this budget is one for children where essential payments are targeted at those who need it the most.”