One in five adolescents is affected by poverty.
Especially single parents are often unable to create a secure existence for themselves and their children despite work.
Gütersloh / Berlin - According to a study, single parents and their children are at a disproportionately high risk of financial poverty.
Almost 43 percent of all single-parent families are classified as low-income, according to a survey published today for the Bertelsmann Foundation.
In the case of couple families with one child, on the other hand, it is 9 percent, with two children this is the case for 11 percent.
Although lone parents are in most cases gainfully employed, they are often unable to secure the subsistence level for themselves and their children with their income.
The risk of poverty for single parents - 88 percent of whom are women - and their children remain at a high level, emphasizes study author Anne Lenze from the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
In 2020, around 34 percent of single parents received basic social security benefits according to SGB II (Hartz IV).
Their share is almost five times higher than in couple families, says the social law expert.
Poverty rate of 20.5 percent
According to the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, children and young people are affected by poverty to a considerable extent. Within ten years, the poverty rate among adolescents climbed from 18.2 to 20.5 percent (2019) - with around 2.8 million affected minors. “It is shameful and shocking how child poverty is intensifying and hardening in this rich country,” says Joachim Rock from the research center. Particularly "hard and violent" hit families with many children as well as single parents.
According to the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the reality is often: poor despite work.
Among single mothers, 71 percent are employed, almost half work full-time or close to full-time.
Among the single parents of SGB II recipients, 40 percent are gainfully employed - so they would not be able to make ends meet without “topping up”.
The study juxtaposes data on relative income poverty from 2019 and on SGB II coverage from 2020 - these are the most recent figures in each case.
According to the current definition, people are at risk of poverty if they have less than 60 percent of the median income of all households.
In 2019, the limit for a single parent with one child was 1396 euros.
Reforms called for
Lenze sees political movement, but more reforms are needed. After all, 2.2 million children and young people - a good 16 percent of all minors - now live in a single-parent family - and the trend is rising. And almost half - 45 percent - of all children related to SGB II grow up in single-parent families, who make up less than a fifth of all families. In 2019 there were 1.52 million single-parent families with underage children.
It was possible to lower the SGB II quotas, especially in East Germany, explains Lenze.
In the west, however, the rate is very high in Bremen (62.4 percent) as well as Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia at around 43 percent.
And: "The relative poverty has not decreased, the single parents and their children have remained poor", emphasizes the lawyer.
Also in the opinion of the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband some families have been removed from the SGB II reference with changes, for example in child allowance or maintenance advances.
But the whole thing is not "poverty-proof."
Existential fears have been increasing since Corona
The association of single mothers and fathers has also observed more existential fears since Corona. Often single mothers work in the low-wage sector, says VAMV federal chairwoman Daniela Jaspers. “Loss of earnings is a huge hit. Single parents usually don't have any reserves. ”They could hardly make a living from short-time work benefits. Child bonuses or sickness benefits were hardly noticeable. If women cut back for their upbringing on the job, after a separation financially compensatory “solidarity” in the law of maintenance is needed. At the moment, women often bathe the consequences of the separation alone, Lenze also complains.
The single parent Nina from Düsseldorf works 28 hours a week in retail and earns 990 euros net.
That is not enough for her, her son (8) and daughter (19).
As SGB II “top-up”, she receives an average of 800 euros per month, says the 41-year-old.
For months she saved on a laptop for homeschooling.
“We had to bleed a lot for that.” Since the ex-partner pays no maintenance, she wants to apply for a state maintenance advance for the son.
"In order to get support services, however, a lot of bureaucracy is always required."
Numerous mini jobs have disappeared
In the pandemic, recipients of low incomes are particularly affected by losses, says Antje Funcke from the foundation.
Numerous mini-jobs have disappeared, and single parents felt that too.
Many are demanding a participation allowance for children, which should ensure them a good upbringing and bundle all financial benefits.
Lenze expects such basic child benefits to be introduced in the next legislature.
"#StopptKinderarmut", a social media campaign run by the foundation, said a lot of children and young people, says Funcke.
They reported about exclusion, renunciation, shame, how exhausted their single mothers are in the effort to enable them to have a good childhood - "and how difficult it was for them to endure."