Thousands Face Lone Parent Family Poverty Crisis

New figures have revealed the shocking extent of poverty among lone parent families. More than two thirds of lone parents have an income of less than £15,000 a year, while one in three lives on less than £10,000, according to children’s charity NCH Scotland.

The charity fears coming from a low income background makes life more of a struggle for children who grow up in lone parent families as they are more at risk of suffering early disadvantages.

Sole parent families make up a quarter of all homeless people in Scotland, while lone parents are also more likely to report poor health than those supported by a partner. There are now 162,000 lone parent families in Scotland and 280,000 children grow up in families with just one parent.

NCH drew on statistics on the state of Scotland’s children and young people to create the Scottish Executive funded Factfile report. The report also revealed children from all kinds of family backgrounds are suffering a difficult start in life, with one in four Scottish children living in poverty.

Crime and violence are also on the increase among young people, according to figures in Factfile. Scottish girls are sixth in an international league table of violence with almost a third of 11 to 15-year-olds involved in at least one fight in the past year.

The number of children referred to the Children’s Reporter is now the highest ever at 53,883 in the year 2005-06. The charity also fears for the safety and welfare of pre-school children, after a steep increase in the number of children needing “care and protection”.

The number of children needing such help has soared from 2995 to 11,975 between 1996 and 2006. Almost half of the children needing help lived in lone parent households, compared with 31% who lived with both birth parents.

NCH is now calling for better support for families and young people to help them out of the poverty trap. Andrew Girvan, director of Children’s Services for NCH Scotland, said: “We need to act now to stop this pattern repeating itself for another generation.”

The organisation is now set to launch a Growing Strong campaign to improve the emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families.