Press Release

Health Declines for Lone Parents and Their Children

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Illness and disability among a 1991 sample of lone-parent families had doubled by 1995, according to a new study from the independent Policy Studies Institute, published today.

The report What Happens to Lone Parents provides a unique insight into the changes experienced by lone-parent families over time. It is based on repeat surveys with a representative sample of 950 lone parents carried out between 1991 and 1995, tracking the same families through time.

Amongst its key findings are:

• In 1991, just 15 per cent of lone parents reported a long-term or limiting illness, but by 1995 29 per cent said they were ill. The proportion with ill children also increased from 13 to 29 per cent.

• There was a strong association between the experience of material hardship and the development of health problems among parents and children. The most common ailments among children were respiratory problems, such as asthma - suffered by 7 in 10 ill children.

• In only four in ten households had the mother and children remained free of long-term or limiting illness throughout the four years. In one in eight households both parent and child were ill. In one in twelve families two or more children were ill.

• Illness was a hidden barrier to employment, with half of those reporting a medical condition saying that it affected the kind of work they could do and where they could do it. Parents who were healthy throughout the period were three times more likely to have worked continuously than those whose health remained poor.

The report also provides a first glimpse of changes in other key areas of lone parents’ lives, besides health, including employment, new partners and new children:

• Movement into work was slow. While three in ten worked 16 hours or more each week in 1991, this had increased to four in ten by 1995.

• More than a third had spent the entire four years without any paid work.

• Most lone parents had remained on their own. By 1995, just 14 per cent were living with a new partner. Another 7 per cent had reunited with their former partner from before the relationship breakdown.

• Widows were the least likely, and single never-married mothers the most likely, to find new partners.

• Those still lone parents in 1995 were asked their reasons for remaining on their own. They divided evenly between those who preferred to live independently, and those who simply had yet to meet a suitable partner.

• One in five had new babies since they were first interviewed. Half these new children coincided with new partnerships and marriages. Half did not.

Dr. Reuben Ford, one of the authors of the report said:

Although there is a gradual improvement in material circumstances over time for lone parent families, the pace of recovery is very slow. At the same time, the legacy of earlier material hardship is seen in reduced employment chances and poor health. The findings from this study show the size of the challenge faced by current policy. Securing more non-benefit income - from earnings and maintenance - does seem to help these families. But fewer than a quarter of lone parents out of work in 1991 were in employment four years later, and fewer than two per cent were newly receiving maintenance as a result of CSA activity.

Dr. Alan Marsh, said:

The New Deal should help lone parents, but there will be many cases when welfare-to- work will have to wait for welfare-to-health. The Department of Social Security and the Department of Health will have to get together on this.

Contact:

Dr. Reuben Ford on 0171 468 2226
Dr. Alan Marsh on 0171 468 2231
Louise Finlayson on 0171 468 2282
DSS Press office on 0171 238 0749 (for copies of the report)

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Notes to editors

1. What Happens to Lone Parents: a cohort study 1991-1995 is based on the first four years of a panel study of 950 families who were representative of lone parents in Britain in 1991. This ongoing study is part of the Department of Social Security-funded Programme of Research Into Low-Income Families (PRILIF) at the Policy Studies Institute.

2. What Happens to Lone Parents: a cohort study 1991-1995 (Department of Social Security Research Report No. 77) by Reuben Ford, Alan Marsh and Louise Finlayson is published by The Stationery Office and can be ordered on 0171 873 9090, priced £31.00, ISBN 0 11 762597 3

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