8/7/2019 One Parent Families in Ireland - Separating Fact From
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One-parent Families in Ireland:Separating Fact from Fiction
- Lone parents are everywhere, and they are a completely urban
and
working class phenomenonThe fastest growing family type in
Ireland is headed by opposite sex
co-habiting couples; Just 18% of all families in Ireland are
headed by
a lone parent (189,213 families); Half live in the urban centres
of Dublin(35%), Cork (10%) and Limerick (5%); lone parents are
members
of every social class in Ireland today.
- They make a conscious lifestyle choice to parent alone
The routes into lone parenthood are varied: marital and
relationship
breakdown; crisis pregnancy; death; and imprisonment are
allpotential causes. In a recent study 59% of lone mothers
reported
that while pregnant, they had been living with or married to
their
childs father.
- They are all unemployed young women
Dads make up 14% of lone parents; Less than 2% of lone parents
onsocial welfare are aged under 20; 40% are between 20 and 29 years
old;
one-third are between 30 and 39 years of age; Just under half of
alllone parents are on a weekly social welfare payment and 6 in
every 10
of those claiming social welfare are also working.
- They get everything, they live on the pigs back, making money
at the
expense of the hard-pressed tax payer
A lone parent on the One-parent Family Payment receives 196 per
weekplus 29.80 per child; a monthly child benefit of 150 per child
is also
paid to allfamilies, regardless of status. The latest poverty
figuresshow that nearly one in five people in lone parent
households
(17.8%) were in consistent poverty in 2008, the highest rate
recorded among household types; Lone parent households
reportedthe highest deprivation levels of any household type with
nearly one
quarter (24.2%) of individuals in these households experiencing
threeor more of the eleven deprivation items in 2008.
- They deliberately have loads of children to get more, like
houses and
more benefits
One-parent families are smaller than other families: 6 of every
10
one-parent families have just one child; 1 quarter of
one-parentfamilies have 2 children; Twice as many couples (30%) as
lone
parents (15%) have families of 3 or more children.
There are 16,795 one-parent families on the waiting list for
socialhousing, equivalent to almost 4 in every 10 households (38%)
in need of
accommodation; 94% of these are lone mothers; Lone parentsHave
fewer children than couples on the housing list: 7 in every 10
lone parents have just one child; 2 in every 10 lone parents
have
two children; One-parent families spend longer on the waiting
listthan other household types.
OPEN7 Red Cow Lane
Smithfield
Dublin 7T: (01) 814 8860F: (01) 814 8890
E: [email protected]
8/7/2019 One Parent Families in Ireland - Separating Fact From
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Real Families, Real ChangeMary lives in a rural area.
My son came home from school really excited because he had been
pickedto represent his county in the Community Games. I burst into
tears and was
still crying when I met my sister. You must be very proud, she
said. I am,I replied, but thats not what Im crying about Im crying
because I know
it will cost me money, somehow, and I cant afford it.Joe lives
in the city with two children.
As a lone father with two small school going kids you couldn't
work full time you had to fit in around school time and childcare.
I told everyone I work
banker's hours no work before 10 or after 2.30 who's going to
collect
your kids? People looked at you as if you had 10 heads if you
turned downwork. but the chunk of money you had to hand over for
childcare meant itwasn't worth it
Joanne lives in the city with two children aged 1 and 3.I left
my mothers because of overcrowding 4 adults and one school
going child, not counting me and my two kids I had 75 points
when I leftand went to private rented. I am 4 years on the Local
Authority List thisOctober my ma left me on her rent and when they
found out they cut me
off and took all my points. Now I have to start again. The rent
is 1,300 per
month and I get 1,017 off the welfare. I still pay 283 a month
and mybook is 220 do the maths for yourself. I like where I am but
you can't doanything I can't give me daughter the Barbie room she
wants. Private
rented is no place to bring up a family I want the security of
our own homeand my kids to live near their granny
OPEN is the national network of one-parent families. Our
membershipis made up of community based groups which provide a
range of supportsand services to almost 15,000 one-parent families
throughout Ireland. OPEN
supports member groups and other groups working with lone
parents, todevelop appropriate responses to the real needs of their
families. Weachieve this through the provision of education,
training and development
programmes; and by seeking to influence policy development.
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The sources for all of the facts on this sheet are: CSO: Census
2006; CSO: Survey on Incomeand Living Conditions 2008 - List of 11
deprivation indicators: 1. Without heating at some stagein the last
year; 2. Unable to afford a morning, afternoon or evening out in
the last fortnight; 3.Unable to afford two pairs of strong shoes;
4. Unable to afford a roast once a week; 5. Unableto afford a meal
with meat, chicken or fish every second day; 6. Unable to afford
new (not sec-ond-hand) clothes; 7. Unable to afford a warm
waterproof coat; 8. Unable to afford to keep thehome adequately
warm; 9. Unable to afford to replace any worn out furniture; 10.
Unable toafford to have family or friends for a drink or meal once
a month; 11. Unable to afford to buypresents for family or friends
at least once a year; Growing Up Ireland: National Longitudinal
Study of Children, 2009; Department of Environment,Heritage
& Local Government: Assessment of Housing Need
