Single parents more likely to be furloughed or work in lockdown-hit industries, study finds

Single parents are radically more likely to have been furloughed or work in industries hardest hit by lockdown measures, new research has found.

Campaigners warn the pandemic has deepened the profound disadvantage already faced by single parents by pushing them yet further into poverty and excluding them from the workplace.

The report, carried out by leading single parent charity, Gingerbread, and the Institute for Employment Studies, found three in ten single parents have been furloughed, compared with around one in five coupled parents.

Meanwhile, while 46 per cent of single parents work in sectors ravaged by lockdown measures, such as hospitality and retail, some 26 per cent of coupled parents worked in such industries.

The study warns single parents exist in a “two-tier society” where they are “firmly” below parents in couples - noting single parents have substantially fewer options to “juggle” childcare and work as well as having only one household wages to fork out for childcare costs.

Researchers note single mothers earned just half the salary of mothers in a couple before the Covid crisis hit as they warned it is “vanishingly unlikely” the salary gap will have lessened in the pandemic. Some 90 per cent of the two million single parents living in the UK are mothers.

Eliza*, a single mother made redundant from the aviation industry last Autumn, said: “I’m kind of at the crossroad. I don’t know where, what to do now, because obviously aviation isn’t going to be possible, so I’m kind of now at the starting block again.”

The single parent, who is from Northern Moor in Manchester, temporarily had to stop her search for jobs to home-school her child.

Victoria Benson, Gingerbread’s chief executive, said: “When it comes to work, single parents are already in a precarious position and it’s clear that without concerted effort things are set to get worse.

“Single parents have much less flexibility than couple parents, limited access to quality jobs and significantly lower household incomes. Before the pandemic, nearly 70 per cent of single parents were in work and yet many were still living in poverty.

“The pandemic is widening the gulf and alarm bells are ringing loud and clear – the government must do more to support single parents to access work and to ensure work pays.”

Ms Benson, who is a single mother with six children, warned if the government fails to act yet more children will be living in poverty.

Researchers said yet more single mothers may be pushed into unemployment when furlough comes to a halt in autumn.

The report notes the pandemic has wreaked financial havoc on nurseries, pre-schools, and registered childminders - causing a substantial proportion to shut their doors forever and childcare fees to shoot up. This is particularly troubling given the UK already had one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world.

Researchers urged the government to make a childcare infrastructure support fund to stop childcare provision from closing, as well as altering childcare fees for people in poorly paid work.

The findings come after multiple studies found the pandemic could exacerbate gender inequality due to women being over-represented in locked down sectors of work and taking on the burden of homeschooling, childcare and household chores amid coronavirus turmoil.