Many thanks to Phil Taylor for directing me to this article in the Sunday Times eight days ago.
Here is an extract:
The analysis of figures in 14 European countries found that Britain has by far the highest proportion of single mothers in the European Union.The report says that in 2001, more than 8% of British households were headed by a single mother aged 18-35, while the UK also has one of the highest rates of benefits for single mothers.
In 1994 a single mother with two children who worked for about 18 hours a week could expect more than £2,000 a year in benefits. By 2001 the figure had increased to more than £3,500.
The researchers do not say outright that high benefits accelerate family break-up. Others, however, believe the study shows that generous benefits for single motherhood provide an incentive for women to have children alone.
Frank Field,
the former Labour minister for social security, said: “I’ve always believed in a causal link between benefits and the number of single mothers.“We’ve got to change so that people don’t become single mothers. For some, they become single mothers by accident, while for others it’s a deliberate choice.”
The study contrasts the situation in Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe with Mediterranean countries such as Spain, where single-mother families constitute less than 1% of the total. Spanish single mothers received £137 in special benefits a year in 1994, which by 2001 had declined to £38.
Spain, along with Greece, Portugal and Italy, have the lowest numbers of single-mother families in Europe.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show single-mother families in Britain have steadily risen from 1% of all households with children in 1971 to 11% in 2004.
Libertad Gonzalez, a Barcelona academic who compiled the research, studied a sample of 6,580 single mothers from the European Community Household Panel. She estimates that for every £675 a state offers in benefits to lone parents, the incidence of single mothers goes up in that country by 2%.
After Britain, Ireland — despite its Catholic heritage — has the highest proportion of single mothers in the EU. In 2001 more than 4% of households were headed by single mothers. Irish lone mothers receive as much in benefits as their British counterparts.
Gonzalez said single mothers received more benefits in Britain and Ireland because they had “liberal” social policies where welfare payments were means-tested, which gave greater assistance to the greatest in need.
By contrast the southern European countries had benefits systems where there was an implicit understanding that family networks should provide assistance.
“The correlation across countries is quite striking,” said Gonzalez. “The countries with the highest incidence of single mothers are also the countries with more generous benefit, and vice versa . . . Spain, Greece and Portugal with small numbers of single mothers also have lower benefit levels. The UK and Ireland are both generous with benefits and have a higher incidence of these families.
See also this previous entry citing Libertad Gonzalez.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Housing • Parenting • Welfare benefits
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Comments
Frank Field really shouldn't be in the Labour Party. He speaks far too much common sense.
Posted by: Raw Carrot at September 11, 2006 05:03 PM
'tis a disgrace what has happened; but hte Tories were pilloried when they tried to reduce benefits.
Attacking the poor in society is not a vote winner.
We need better ideas for supporting families, familay life, staying at school and sex education. This is all progressive and will allow then the reduction in welfare spending.
I'd cut benefits tomorrow but then no one votes for me!
Posted by: cityunslicker at September 13, 2006 11:13 AM
Hi, I'm visiting your site for the first time after Iain's recommendation on his Top Tory list just published. I'm interested in lots of the topics you cover, they are the same areas that I cover too, so I will be visiting again.
Posted by: Ellee at September 16, 2006 09:11 PM
Off topic from this post, but I've been looking unsuccessfully for an email address to send along some thoughts, and a suggestion, regarding your wonderful column on home education in last week's Spectator.
We're a home educating family in western Canada, and much in your article resonated with me, with our own reasons for pulling our eldest from the local public (state) school several years ago when she was six.
As far as the "narrative sweep", I would suggest Sir Ernst Gombrich's "Little History of the World", which is slim but elegant and definitely sweeping. It's also available unabridged on audio
CD, which my children (ages 9, 7, and 5.5) enjoying listening to at bedtime, and for something different you can find it too
Ernst-Gombrich/dp/2850257044/sr=1-3/qid=1158970220/ref=sr_1_3/171-0413899-3395421?ie=UTF8&s=books">en francais, which might work well with the French studies.
All best wishes to you and your family on your new adventures, academic and otherwise.
Posted by: Becky at September 23, 2006 07:19 PM
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It was instructive to listen to Stephen Nolan on the BBC (standing in for Victoria Derbyshire) this morning, pre the PM's speech about 'social exclusion'. Nolan, a simple-minded Ulsterman who drips with the fat of his own ego and wallows in righteous ersatz fairness, was very keen to predict how Blair might 'help' single mothers. I think he meant, by giving them bigger flats. And more money. And possibly state-sponsored people carriers.
Posted by: thenorthernsoulboy at September 5, 2006 12:23 PM