One in four families in the UK is a single parent family.
Modern day life is expensive and I say this as a married family of four which is pretty old fashioned these days. Both my husband and I work full time and our two incomes support us, a 12 year old and a 9 year old. It’s all an expensive juggle. I have total respect for all parents but a special place in my heart for those who are at the coalface solo.
Recently an email about a campaign for Payplan all about #CostOfSingleParentLiving came into my inbox. The facts shocked me and I felt compelled to share.
A fact which brought tears to my eyes is that one in three British children with a working single parent are living in poverty and the figures are set to rise. I know how hard the working parent challenge is as part of a couple and finding a way to balance work and caring is one of the biggest and most expensive challenges for single parents. But the extra costs don’t stop at childcare.
Family deals designed for the conventional two adults and two kids. Naively I thought would see a single adult group making a saving, leave single parents out of pocket. This lack of eligibility for single mum or dad could tot up over a few years to be well into extra costs rather than savings and well into the thousands of pounds in extra costs. Really quite shocking, check out the details below.
It is well evidenced that kids living in households where someone works are less likely to be in poverty as an adult and more likely to achieve in school, compared to those growing up in workless households. From jobs, education and childcare right through to cinemas, swimming pools and theme parks all need to look at how they can expand their offering to help and support single parents.
What can we do?
Everyone likes to a good deal and to bag a bargain so isn’t it terribly unfair that those who could do with a saving proportional to their family format are being penalised? I hope this campaign will help drive some equality for all families whatever their make up.
Single parent families make up a quarter of the families in the UK so they need some help and support from their parenting counterparts in couples. The difference in circumstances put already often cash strapped single families in an unfair situation and it is really unjust.
Please support Payplan‘s #CostofSingleParentLiving campaign and help raise awareness by sharing the information in this post – thank you!
