Lone Parents In The Uk Essay Research

Lone Parents In The Uk Essay, Research Paper

Lone parents constitute one of the poorest groups of people in Britain today.The aim of this presentation is to attempt to explain why I think this is, and what should be done about it and by whom.I will attempt to do this by initially looking at and trying to define poverty looking at some research already performed on the subject, and the dramatic changes and trends which have lead to lone parents.The most noticeable demographic studies and social trends in the last 20 to 30 years are the rise in one parent s families. The number of lone parents grew from just over a half a million at the beginning of the 1970s to nearly 1 million by the beginning of the 1980s. It was estimated to over 1.7 million in 1995 1. The situation seemed to have been created by societies acceptance to the high level of changes and trends in the breakdown of marriages, the separation of sex, and the changes in parents hood. Single motherhood seen as a statically rising proportion of the total. However, there is a difference in the way static portrayed single mothers, and these can be misleading. There are single mothers whom have been become single as a consequences of relationship breakdown and single mothers who has never had a partner. Women who have separated usually appear in the statistic as single. About 35% of all lone mothers are defined as single, but only about 18% of that have never lived with a partner.2 The statistics also shows that women who are poor and from a deprived backgrounds who are black or live in areas of high unemployment are more likely to become lone parents. Lone parenthood is not always a planned occurrence but once pregnant most lone mothers do not see this as a major problem. One parent s families seem to be becoming the accepted thing of the nineties another stage in the family cycle rather than an unaccepted change to family norm. Throughout the western, industrialize countries we can see a more diverse pattern of the family structure is developing. The tie with family support and obligation are becoming much more complex. However, throughout all the changes that have accrued in family patterns the most visible and the most difficult, seem to be in the breakdown of families. With the most complex been the problems of lone parents and poverty that are now seen as a social problem.Lone parents constitute one of the poorest groups in Britain today, this is due to such factors as high rate unemployment amongst lone parenthood, the majority tends to rely on income support. Which is believe by some to generate an increased level of public expenditure with the most visible been Social Security which has risen over the past decade and in 1995/6 stood at almost 10 billion 3. Poverty in lone parents is probably one of the biggest problems the government has yet to face, and it is on the increase. There are many different ways to define poverty. The two most commonly used by sociologists are absolute and relative poverty. These are two very opposing views; the idea of absolute is usually judged by the resources we require maintaining our health and basic everyday needs. We need enough resources to keep us in good health to be able provide for food, clothing and shelter for our family and ourselves. Absolute poverty is often measure to material deprivation. Prue Leith argues, Poverty is not about material things, but about having enough resources to survive, eating, should not be a treat, but a part of everyday living . 4 I would argue that poverty is not only due to a lack of material possession but it is also to where members of society are excluded from the lifestyle of the community in which they live. This can be supported by sociologist who states Poverty can be caused by cultural differences, including the cultural of poverty itself in a society that has a class barrier. Lone parents have a very high level risk of poverty in comparison to those families with two parents.Poverty tends to be the main cause of debt, and material hardship that the lone parent has to face it is also one of the reasons that lone parents are rejected by their society due to not been able to afford to have entertainment. Lone parents have to provide for their children just as married parents do, the need to protect their offspring from poverty is priority which often leads to them spending less on themselves. Some in society may argue that a lone parent makes choices, which consign them to poverty. however I would argue that society does not recognise that most lone parents did not choose to be single, but due to certain circumstances (breakdown of relationship) the choice was taken away from them. Been a lone parent s means brining the children up on your own. There is a problem of combining dual roles such as parent ,worker, and carer, and provider only one person to share in the problems that a family life brings e.g. (One income, one person to manage the home). If and when things go wrong you are on your own and have to cope. Changes in families and communities, which can leave the lone parents feeling, isolated. with a larger number of women in the work force there tend to be less help available from grandparents, and other family members to help and support the lone parents. Other factors which leads to poverty in the lone parents not having the help with child care upon returning to the work force. This can place a certain amount of stress on both the p