Everybody Knows: challenging the myths
about one-parent families in Ireland

The OPEN Everybody Knows information pack takes the form of a wallet containing brief information sheets summarising statistics about one parent families in Ireland. The pack was funded by the Combat Poverty Agency’s UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2007 funding programme, and by the Equality Authority’s European Year of Equal Opportunities for All programe.

You can view Everybody Knows online or download PDF; hard copies are available by contacting OPEN’s National Centre.

The Facts about One Parent Families

How many lone parents?

• FACT: Census 2006 counted 189,213 one parent families – 162,496 lone mothers (86%)and 26,717 lone fathers (14%)
• FACT: Department of Social and Family Affairs data shows that in 2005 there were 80,366 lone parents receiving the One-Parent Family Payment

How much support?

• FACT: In 2007, a lone parent with one child, who is fully reliant on social welfare, receives €207.80 per week from the One-Parent Family Payment; an additional allowance of €22 per week is paid for each additional child.
• FACT: All parents in the State including lone parents receive €160.00 in child benefit per month for the first and second child and €195.00 per month for the third and subsequent children (from April 2007).

How many children?

• FACT: Almost 2 out of 3 one parent families (59%) have only one child; a quarter (26%) have two children
• FACT: In 2005, 131,165 children were living in one-parent families who depend on social welfare payments

How old are lone parents?

• FACT: Only 1.3% of lone parents receiving social welfare are under 20 years of age.
• FACT: 42% of One Parent Family recipients are aged between 20 and 29 years of age.

Lone parents and poverty

According to the Central Statistics Office:

• FACT: Almost one in three (27%) lone parent households were living in consistent poverty in 2005 – almost four times the rate for the population as a whole (7%)
• FACT: Four in every ten one parent families were at risk of poverty.
• FACT: One parent familes suffer very high levels of deprivation: 23.5% could not afford to buy new, rather than second-hand, clothes; 39.7% of households experienced debt problems arising from ordinary living expenses; 30.6% went without heating at some stage in the past year

Sources:
Central Statistics Office (2007) Census 2006 – Principal Demographic Results. Cork: Central Statistics Office.
Department of Social and Family Affairs (2006) Statistical Information on Social Welfare Services 2005. Dublin: Department of Social and Family Affairs
Central Statistics Office (2006) EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2005 Cork: Central Statistics Office.