Third of lone parents 'on under £10,000'

Published on Tuesday 14 August 2007 00:21

THE extent of poverty among lone parent families is revealed today in a new report which exposes that one in three lives on less than £10,000 a year.

It also found that more than two-thirds of lone parents have an annual income of less than 15,000, according to the children's charity NCH Scotland.

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 highlighted that one in four Scottish children lives in poverty.

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 2,995 to 11,975 between 1996 and 2006.

Almost half of the children needing help lived in lone parent households, compared with 31 per cent who lived with both birth parents.

Andrew Girvan, the director of children's services for NCH Scotland, said: "Having a poor start in life is condemning far too many of our young people to a life of difficulty and disadvantage. We need to act now to stop this pattern repeating itself for another generation of young people."