Two major new reports from the Policy Studies Institute - the UK’s leading independent research organisation - challenge common misconceptions about the growth of lone parenthood in Britain and the policy problems it poses.

1. The Growth of Lone Parenthood examines how families become lone parents and how they leave lone parenthood. It exposes important differences between those who never live with their children’s fathers - solo mothers - and those who become lone parents after the breakdown of a relationship - separated mothers.

Broadly speaking, women who are poor tend to become solo mothers, while women who separate become poor:

• Single women who come from poor socio-economic backgrounds, who live in social housing, who are black, or who live in areas of high local unemployment, are more likely to become solo mothers. Their economic prospects are already poor, and so are those of the men living in the same areas. Solo motherhood is rarely the result of a planned pregnancy but, having become pregnant, the women do not necessarily see this as ‘problem’ requiring a ‘solution’.

• Women who are pregnant at marriage or who marry/cohabit at a young age are most at risk of becoming separated lone mothers. But separated lone motherhood is less linked to prior social disadvantage than solo lone motherhood. Instead, these women and children may experience a sudden decline in their incomes and living standards following separation.

2. Private Lives and Public Responses brings together 13 recent research studies - the most comprehensive evaluation yet of UK evidence on lone parenthood and public policy in the 1990s - to provide a guide for policy-makers to the debate surrounding lone parenthood: on poverty, employment, childcare and the Child Support Agency. Findings included:

• Supplementing wages through Family Credit encourages participation in work. But it can make it difficult for some working lone mothers to improve their wages, leaving the state paying wage supplements for longer than would otherwise be the case. So far, the new Working Families Tax Credit looks unlikely to solve this problem .

• Lone mothers who improve their skills through training or education do see improvements in their hourly wage.

• The introduction of the Child Support legislation has done little to help most lone mothers. It can be a useful resource if received reliably, but, for many lone mothers, contact with the CSA has had more negative than positive outcomes.

• An integrated approach to policy is required, both across different areas of provision - particularly in respect of financial support, childcare and housing - and between lone parents and other families with children. Policies to support all children and provisions to help all parents reconcile paid work and family life are the most important policy priorities for the future.

Dr. Reuben Ford, Senior Fellow at PSI and co-editor of Private Lives and Public Responses, said:

‘A spell of lone parenthood is an increasingly common experience for British women and their children. A third of children, and possibly more, will spend some time being brought up by one parent alone. It is essential that we get policies working in these children’s best interests’.

Prof. Jane Millar, director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy at the University of Bath, and co-editor of the volume, said

'The level of poverty among lone-parent families is unacceptably high. The New Deal for Lone Parents is a positive move to help lone parents into employment. But we also need to ensure that those who are not in paid work receive adequate levels of benefit support.

Contact:	Dr. Reuben Ford on 0171 468 2226
		Prof. Jane Millar on 01225 826141
		PSI Publications Dept on 0171 468 2201 (for review copy)

1. Private Lives and Public Responses is based on the proceedings of a conference held at the University of Bath in 1997, and supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A ‘Foundations’ summary of the report is available from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 01904 629241, or on their web site . The Growth of Lone Parenthood presents results from a study sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (award number L315253002).

2. Private Lives and Public Responses, edited by Reuben Ford and Jane Millar, is published by PSI and is available from Grantham Books on 01476 541080, priced £17.95, ISBN 0 85374 736 9.

3. The Growth of Lone Parenthood, by Karen Rowlingson and Stephen McKay, is published by PSI and is available from Grantham Books on 01476 541080, priced £14.95 ISBN 0 85374 735 0.

4. PSI is a registered educational charity (no. 313819) and has no association with any political party, pressure group or commercial interest.