One study carried out in 2018 by the single parent support organisation Gingerbread found that in that year
almost half of children in single parent families lived in poverty, compared to just a quarter of those in
couple families. That figure was predicted to rise to two-thirds by 2021.
There are around 1.8m single parents in the UK and around 90 per cent of them are women. It isn’t just the
financial struggles they face now, many find it hard to save for emergencies or into a pension, risking
lifelong poverty even after the children leave home.