Of the 1.8 million single parent households in the UK, 650,000 – almost one in four – are not in any sort of work, with the average single parent household claiming twice as much in benefit support as the average two parent household.
A new Policy Exchange report says that the proportion of lone parent households UK is the fourth highest in the EU – trailing only Estonia, Latvia and Ireland.
The paper found that the level of unemployed single parents can partly be attributed to when they had children. Over half (52%) of lone mothers who had their first child as a teenager (16-19) are not in work or looking for work, compared to 40% who had their first child aged 20-23 year olds, 29% of those who had their first child aged 24-29 and 19% who had their first child in their early thirties.
Other findings include:
- Single parents tend to have fewer children than married couples. In 2012, 57% of lone parents only had one child compared to 41% of couples.
- Single parents with children under five who are not in work are twice as likely to have a second child compared to those in work.
- The most common age single parents have their first child is 20 compared to couples who are together who most often have their first child at 30.
- While the number of teenage pregnancies has fallen by a third between 1998 and 2011, the UK still has one of the highest rates in the developed world.
- The number of women aged 20-24 giving birth has fallen by 40% since 1981.
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