‘It is a living nightmare’: Hundreds of thousands of single mothers at risk of not being able to feed children or pushed onto streets

“I just came home and cried,” said Victoria Benson, after finding the local shops empty.

“I don’t know how I’m going to do this,” the chief executive of leading single parent charity, Ginger Bread, told The Independent.

“I have no support from family members because everyone is self-isolating. I feel completely overwhelmed”.

The mother-of-four, who is a single parent, said there was no bread, pasta, meat or cereal in her local store and she was anxious about how she would manage to feed her children if the coronavirus crisis means supermarket shelves are empty.

Her comments come as campaigners warned hundreds of thousands of single mothers are at risk of not being able to afford to feed their children due to emergency measures brought in to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, which range from the closure of schools to government advice to avoid all non-essential travel, and to work from home where possible.

Around 70 per cent of the two million single parents living in the UK are currently in work, but three out of 10 single parents working are living in poverty. While some 90 per cent of single parents are women.

Campaigners said single mothers are faced with the choice of looking after their children at home or going out to work to ensure they are fed – warning children and teenagers may be forced to stay home by themselves while women work.

Ms Benson, who lives with four children aged between seven and 17, said: “Many single mothers can’t work from home due to the fact they are disproportionately in precarious, low paid jobs which are more likely to be zero-hour contracts that do not have the option to work at home. They are facing the choice of having to go into work or staying home with no pay.

“Now with the schools closing, single parents currently in work are faced with the option of having to look after their children at the same time as working. Alternative types of childcare would ordinarily be grandparents, childcare providers and childminders but these services will not be accessible due to social isolation measures.

“I don’t see how I can work full time and give my children the support they need. The mental pressure is one of the hardest factors. The feeling of isolation and of being alone. If there is only one adult in the house, everything is on you to do all of that stuff. We need the government to step in.”

Hannah Graham, a single mother who is self-isolating with her two children, said she is anxious about how she is going to afford to feed her children due to school closures meaning she could be forced to fork out additional money for food.

“I’m worried about money,” the 45-year-old, who lives near Manchester, told The Independent.

“I’m a pressure keg. I’m a whirlwind of emotions inside. I feel trapped. I am a stay at home mum because my son is disabled. I have been self-isolating since Saturday due to being out with a friend who had a high temperature and a cough and then briefly having a sore throat and temperature myself.

“I am now covering 10 lunches a week I wouldn’t normally be covering because they get free school meals. I feel numbed and stunned – like I’m sat in a fog and there’s no clear direction anywhere.”

She added: “My son is getting more and more hyperactive stuck in the house. He and his sister are arguing more and more. It is making me feel really highly strung but I need to stay calm otherwise they will realise something is up and start potentially acting worse. It is 35 hours a week with me which they are not normally with me.

“The problem is I don’t have another grown-up to chat things through with. All my thoughts and worries are going round and round. It’s not the virus I’m scared about, it’s my life. Someone’s just taken my life away and not told me what I can have in exchange. It is a living nightmare.”

Ms Graham, a former child protection social worker, said she had not left the house in almost a week but had fortunately received an Asda delivery of food in that time. But her children had already eaten all of the snacks in the house, she added.

The mother-of-two, who is in a support network for single mothers started by Gingerbread, said fellow single mothers had got in touch to say they were also struggling as the coronavirus crisis worsens.

Ms Graham added: “One lady is going through a divorce with an abusive ex-partner who is still living in the house and won’t move out. She is working from home and he has said she has got to make sure the children make no noise. She is an NHS worker and should be going into work but he’s refusing to look after them.

“Another lady is working full-time whose 11-year-old son has asthma. He is home alone self-isolating to protect himself, but she is bringing back bugs every night. He might as well be in school. If she is supposed to be educating him she should be at home, but she can’t stop work because it would be unpaid work.”

Ms Graham said it was not ideal leaving an 11-year-old on their own and she would not be happy doing so. She said it was deeply unfair that the mother is now expected to teach him, but only has weekends and evenings free to do so.

Emergency legislation, which is soon to be passed by the Commons, will permit ministers to force some schools to stay open for the children of key workers if they are required to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Vivienne Hayes, chief executive of the Women’s Resource Centre, said: “Before coronavirus, many single mothers were already one paycheck away from the streets, but coronavirus has made this worse. It is a perfect storm and a very dangerous domino effect. Children are already going hungry. Unless the government takes immediate action, children will be starving.”

Sophie Walker, chief executive of Young Women’s Trust, added: “For those mothers of children who receive free school meals, the impact of school closures on their ability to feed their family will be particularly stark.

“The voucher system announced by the government on Wednesday will be vital to giving these families the support they need, but it must be set at a level that allows families to get the food they need while ensuring that, amid reports of empty supermarket shelves, supplies reach the most vulnerable.”

Gavin Williamson, education secretary, said: “No child who would ordinarily receive a free school meal should go without this while their school is closed or while they are having to self-isolate at home. By giving headteachers flexibility on how they can get meals or shop vouchers to these children, they can make the most appropriate decisions for families in their communities, and provide immediate reassurance that this important support will continue.”