MSE News: MPs vote to limit benefit rises to 1%

ILW

dori2o wrote: »

I never realised that only women become single parents.

The vast majority are women.

Morlock

Dunroamin wrote: »

Surely even one person making living on benefits is "too many" - the phrase doesn't indicate a majority.

Not literally, but in the context used (and considering other comments from the same person), that was the insinuation.

bloomingflower

clemmatis wrote: »

Official figures suggest otherwise. The % of single parent families has risen from 8% in 1971, through 24% in 1998, to 26% in 2011.

This is quite surprising. So from year 1998 to 2011 proves that it is not actually a huge jump.
Considering we are led to believe that so many single mums are sucking the life out of the welfare system!

plum2002

bloomingflower wrote: »

This is quite surprising. So from year 1998 to 2011 proves that it is not actually a huge jump.
Considering we are led to believe that so many single mums are sucking the life out of the welfare system!

Given that divorce figures rose during the 70's and 80's possibly that would account for a fair amount of the increase?

FBaby

bloomingflower wrote: »

This is quite surprising. So from year 1998 to 2011 proves that it is not actually a huge jump.
Considering we are led to believe that so many single mums are sucking the life out of the welfare system!

But these figures only indicate the percentage of single parents not the percentage of benefits claimed by single parents. What would be interesting would be to compare the percentage of single parents with the ratio of benefits going to single parents in total £.

Horseunderwater

ILW wrote: »

The vast majority are women.

Only because they are the ones who are literally left holding the baby - either by choice or circumstances beyond their control. Single male parents tend to be where a wife or partner may have passed away or just walked out and gone missing for whatever reason - should think the ratio is 80:20 - what does it matter anyway?

bloomingflower

dori2o wrote: »

I never realised that only women become single parents.

ILW wrote: »

The vast majority are women.

This is interesting reading;

Gingerbread works to tackle the stigma around single parents by dispelling myths and labels.

>>>http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=365

From June 2010 there were 200,000 single dads in the UK and this number is still growing.

As single fathers are more likely to be widowed than single mothers (12 per cent of single fathers are widowed, compared with 5 per cent of single mothers), and their children tend to be older.

Surprisingly,less than 2 per cent of single parents are teenagers.

Around half of single parents had their children within marriage – 49 per cent are separated from marriage, divorced or widowed.

The median age of single parents is 38.1.

59.2 per cent of single parents are in work, up 14.5 percentage points since 1997.

bloomingflower

bloomingflower wrote: »

This is quite surprising. So from year 1998 to 2011 proves that it is not actually a huge jump.
Considering we are led to believe that so many single mums are sucking the life out of the welfare system!

plum2002 wrote: »

Given that divorce figures rose during the 70's and 80's possibly that would account for a fair amount of the increase?

Oh yes I do agree plum...

The period between 1971 through to 1998 is clearly a huge jump over the 27 years which is granted. But the figure of 26% in 2011 was the one that most surprised me given that it is a small jump over the 13 years.

The issue here so far on this board is that single mums/parents are made to be seen as the only ones who are putting a strain on the welfare system which after reading those figures on here and Gingerbread clearly shows they are not. Also those figures doesn't mean they are all claiming benefits.

Maybe I am making a pig's ear out of my explanation but I am hoping someone else can understand me :rotfl:

Morlock

bloomingflower wrote: »

>>>http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=365

59.2 per cent of single parents are in work, up 14.5 percentage points since 1997.

From the same source:

"38 per cent of single parents receive maintenance from their child’s other parent"

It's interesting that the percentage of single parents who work, 59.2%, is almost exactly the same percentage as those who don't receive maintenance, 62%.

Another interesting statistic, from 2003 so fairly dated, but possibly still accurate:

"Male lone parents are much more likely to work full time than their female counterparts. At a regional level figures show that nearly 59% of men work full time compared to just over 20% of women."

www.swslim.org.uk/documents/mti/lone_parents.pdf

Gentile

Saying that the majority of single mums are out there cashing in on benefits and living in luxury is wrong. But the benefit system is very very generous towards single mums with kids. That is the reality. So we have a fair few of them exploiting this. They just have to go and play with the EntitledTo calculator and then make sure they pop a kid out every year. It is being done especially in poor parts of the country.