LONE PARENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: ENUMERATION, DESCRIPTION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY. 1993

McCashin, A. (1993) LONE PARENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: ENUMERATION, DESCRIPTION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY. 1993. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

In the past two decades there has been an enormous growth internationally ill public and academic debate about the role of women in society and in the economy. This debate has been taking place in Ireland also. It encompasses a range of analytical and policy issues such as: the policy implications for taxation and social security of married women’s increased labour force participation, the economic value of women’s unpaid work in the house as mothers and carers, the social and economic factors associated with changing patterns of family life. This study is concerned with one aspect of the changing patterns of family life -- the growth of lone parent families and the consequence of this growth for the State’s system of social security. At the outset the study locates the concept "lone parent" in the wider framework of family formation -- this is a necessary reminder of the variety of "routes" into lone parenthood and of the varying types and duration of lone parenthood. Following convention in studies in this area, this study focuses on lone mothers with dependent children. First, almost all lone parents are mothers. Second, lone mothers with children in the dependent age groups are more likely to experience the needs for income and other social supports and hence are of particular concern for public policy. The study identifies significant limitations witfi tile official data on lone parents. Notably, the Census data incorporates an undercount of some types of lone parents (those residing in their parents’ homes as part of a wider household) and an overcount of others (those married who are counted as having "absent" partners due to the de facto definition of residence in the Census). The Census data suggest that the lone parent population has been growing very rapidly in recent years. These families comprised just 7 per cent of all families in 1981 and 9 per cent in 1986. Single, unmarried mothers are the most rapidly increasing segment of the lone parent population -- an increase of over 135 per cent from 1981 to 1986.

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