There are now over 150,000 single-parent families in the State, writes Liam Reid.There are now over 150,000 single parent families in the State,writes Liam Reid
There is a stark fact about being born to a lone parent in Ireland today and that is the high chance of being born into a poverty trap.
Despite the sustained economic boom of the last decade that has seen unemployment levels drop to historic lows, the State has also seen a near doubling in the number of single parent families dependent on the State for income support.
There are now over 150,000 single parent families in the State, just over half of them with at least one child under the age of 15. While this reflects the changes in Irish society where divorce and separation are more common, it also represents a huge problem in terms of child poverty.
Of the 150,000 single parent families, 60 per cent of them are in receipt of social welfare payments, now called the One Parent Family scheme.
The scheme is now much different to those in the 1980s, which were based on the idea that a woman's place was in the home, and people were penalised for taking up any form of work.
Now there are a series of measures aimed at encouraging single parents to take up employment or return to college.
The problem is that they are not working and once you are a single parent dependent on social welfare, it is extremely difficult to escape from that.
As an unpublished report by a working group of senior civil servants from the Department of Social and Family Affairs shows, the problem of lone parents reliant on the State has increased rather than decreased at a time of unprecedented wealth in the country.
In 1995, just as the economy was taking off, there were 44,035 single parents on social welfare. By 1997 it had grown to 57,200, jumping again to 72,774 three years later. It now stands at just under 80,000.
One fact highlighted in the report is that once in the scheme families find it very difficult to regain their financial independence.
Unmarried single parents spend an average of 7½ years claiming single parent allowances, while separated people spend an average of 5.6 years on the scheme.
This is despite the fact that the scheme allows people to earn upwards of €150 per week without losing entitlements, while there are further grants to enable parents to return to full-time education.
Upwards of 60 per cent of recipients take up these entitlements, but they still tend to remain reliant on social welfare payments.
The other primary problem with the scheme is that it is based, by way of its definition, on the requirement to be single.
Social welfare inspectors believe this rule is flouted widely, and estimate that between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of recipients are in fact cohabiting.
It is seen within the department as both unenforceable and undesirable as it encourages a system where low income families can be penalised financially for living together.
The report also dispels a few myths about lone parents, the most persistent being that there are large numbers of teenage mothers living off the State.
In fact, teenage mothers account for just 2.2 per cent of one parent families dependent on social welfare payments or 2,169 in absolute numbers. The bulk of single parent families are headed by women in their late 20s and in their 30s.
The other oft-repeated claim is of single parents with a brood of children from various fathers; another complete myth.
Some 60 per cent of the families dependent on State support have one child only, while a quarter have two.
The other stark feature of one parent families is the age of the children. Three quarters of them are under the age of 13, with 31 per cent of children in this group aged four or under and a further 19 per cent are less than eight years of age.
Perhaps the starkest figures in the whole report is of the 31,534 children born in the first six months of last year, 6,838, were born to people in receipt of one parent family payments.
It means that one in five children being born in Ireland today is born to single parents who are reliant on social welfare payments, or more simply, into poverty.
Lone parents in Ireland: at a glance
This is a 244 per cent increase on the 23,014 claiming the allowance in 1990.
The average duration of a claim for an unmarried single parent is 7.5 years and 5.6 years for separated parents.
2.8 per cent of recipients are aged under 20; 20.4 per cent aged between 20 and 24; 23.2 per cent aged between 25 and 29; and 34.6 per cent aged between 30 and 39.
60.5 per of recipients have one child only, 25 per cent have two children and 4.9 per cent have four children or more.
60 per cent of claimants were in employment, more than half of whom were earning less than €150 per week.
The largest increase in claimants in the last five years have been in Donegal (25 per cent), Wexford (23 per cent), Galway (21 per cent), and Cork (14 per cent).