According to the research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), in the year prior to the pandemic, nearly half (49 per cent) of children in lone-parent families were in relative poverty, compared to 25 per cent of children living in two-parent families. Relative poverty is defined as an income of less than 60 per cent of median incomes adjusted for household size.
The findings are taken from the IFS’ annual report into living standards, poverty and inequality, which is due to be published in full on 14 July.
The report, which is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, examines trends in child poverty that are not affected by the pandemic using data up to 2019-20. This is because the think tank says that during the pandemic, there were ‘radical’ changes to the labour market and temporary increases in benefits, which pushed down poverty rates in 2020-21. However, much of the support has been withdrawn, causing poverty rates to now ‘rebound’
According to the early findings, relative poverty for children of lone parents rose by 9 percentage points between 2013-14 and 2019-20, from 40 per cent to 49 per cent. In contrast, relative poverty for children in two-parent families increased by only 2 percentage points over the same period. The IFS says that this implies that the ‘incomes of lone parents fell further behind those on average incomes during the recovery from the Great Recession, and further behind the incomes of two-parent families.
In 2019-20, 1.5 million children of lone parents were in relative income poverty. Children of lone parents accounted for around a fifth of all children (22 per cent), but around a third of all children in relative poverty (36 per cent).
The research also finds that there was no progress in reducing absolute poverty for children of lone parents in the years leading up to the pandemic. Absolute poverty is defined as children in households with incomes below a fixed poverty threshold, adjusted for inflation and household size, equivalent to around £14,400 per year for a lone parent with two young children in 2020-21.
It concludes that the flatlining of absolute poverty and the rise in relative poverty for children of lone parents reflects reductions in the real value of state benefits in the years from 2011 to 2019. The researchers state that lone parents on low incomes are particularly reliant on income from benefits.
Jonathan Cribb, associate director at IFS and an author of the report, said, ‘Rises in employment pushed up incomes of lone-parent families in the years running up to the pandemic, but cuts to state benefits and tax credits reduced their incomes. The combined effect was that there was no progress in reducing absolute poverty in lone-parent families between 2010 and 2019, and their incomes fell further behind those on average incomes.’
'UK families brutally exposed to the current cost of living crisis.'
Further research from the Resolution Foundation, also published today, warns there has been a ‘complete collapse’ of income growth for ‘poor’ households over the past two decades.
Its Living Standards Audit 2022 finds that UK families have suffered 15 years of income stagnation, which has left them ‘brutally’ exposed to the current cost-of-living crisis.
The Resolution Foundation has calculated that real typical household disposable income growth for working-age families has slumped to just 0.7 per cent in the 15 years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It says that the ‘meagre’ increase in income, after inflation and tax, left households ‘ill-prepared’ for the fastest surge in prices in decades, with those in rented accommodation and with young children particularly vulnerable.