Private care not viable for 75% of lone parents

NEARLY three-quarters of lone parents are stay-at-home parents or rely on grandparents to care for their children as they can’t afford any other form of private care, the first nationwide poll on childcare has learnt.

Fifty percent of lone parents are stay-at-home parents while 25% rely on grandparent childcare. This compares with parents from all backgrounds where 52% stay at home and 17% are looked after by grandparents.

Most lone parents are younger with 17% of them under the age of 17 compared to just 5% of all parents.

There is a marginally higher number of lone parents in Dublin and just 23% of single parents have full-time jobs compared to 49% of all parents.

The survey also finds that lone parents tend to have less children than parents in relationships - 1.68 compared to 1.95 - and 76% of them are from blue collar backgrounds while just 52% of all parents are from working class backgrounds.

The 17% who do work say that they picked their childcare on the basis of low cost, while amongst parents in general this figure drops to 12%.

Across the board, their tighter budget appears to influence most parts of their life.

Interestingly, 19% of single parents think that full-time childcare is an ideal childcare situation for their children while this figure drops to 12% amongst the wider parent group, suggesting that they may see greater benefit from working full-time.

It is in the area of parental entitlements that lone parents seem to lose out most with them taking less maternity leave, unpaid maternity leave and parental leave.

Statistics from the Irish Examiner/Lansdowne Market Research survey show that 13% of lone parents take unpaid maternity leave and just 4% take parental leave compared to 9% of all other parents. Forty-nine percent take the full eight weeks of maternity leave while amongst women in relationships this rises to 57%.

Lone parents are also twice as likely to vote Sinn Féin and less likely to vote Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

Twenty-two percent say they would vote Sinn Féin while just 10% of all parents would. Twenty-nine percent would vote Fianna Fáil while just 20% would vote for Fine Gael. In comparison, 38% of all parents would vote for Fianna Fáil and 25% would be inclined to vote for Fine Gael.

Crime, drugs, healthcare and poverty are some of their big political concerns with 67% admitting that they worry about healthcare. Amongst all parents this a serious concern but to a lesser extent with 59% saying it worries them.