Tonia Antoniazzi MP
  • Home
  • About Tonia
  • Latest News
  • Get in touch
  • Advice Surgeries
  • COVID-19

The single parent debt trap - report from Gingerbread and StepChange

24/2/2021

 
Picture
Earlier this week, the APPG on debt & personal finance, and the APPG on single parent families, joined together in a meeting to launch 'The single parent debt trap', a new report published jointly by Gingerbread and StepChange. 

The report was published earlier this month and found that single parents disproportionately live with problem debt - prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, severe problem debt affected 13% of single parents, compared to 5% of couple parents and 4% of single adults. Sadly, the pandemic has exposed more single parent families to poverty.

The research highlighted some of the main causes of problem debt in single parents:
  • A challenging combination of poverty, income insecurity and ‘lumpy’ expenses
  • Financial problems following relationship transitions
  • Economic abuse
  • Life shocks
  • COVID 19

The report makes these recommendations for the Government:
  • Ensure parents have sufficient income to make ends meet - Through reforms to social security, childcare, the child maintenance service and establishing a minimum income commission 
  • Support single parents to be financially resilient and have access to safe and affordable credit options - Through stabilising UC payments, linking 'Help to Save' with UC and developing an affordable credit strategy, including a no-interest loans scheme
  • Prevent economic abuse and support survivors - Regulated firms and advice providers should use new Financial Conduct Authority vulnerability guidance to scrutinise and improve how effectively their products and services work to prevent, identify and end economic abuse.

​The full report is available to read here

As vice-chair of the APPG on single parent families, I was shocked and moved by what I heard during the meeting, like Lisa's story. Lisa was a victim of economic abuse, with £23K of debt in her name that was built up by her partner. He had taken out more than 60 payday loans in her name without her consent. Sadly this isn't a unique experience - 48% of respondents in the report said they had experienced some form of economic abuse.

I sincerely hope that the Government takes notice of this report and takes action, so that single parent families are able to take back control of their finances and avoid falling into severe problem debt in the future.

Help and advice:

If you are experiencing any of the issues in this post, there is help available.
  • Gingerbread is a charity that supports single parent families - www.gingerbread.org.uk
  • StepChange are the UK's leading debt advice charity - www.stepchange.org/
  • Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) is the UK's only charity dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse - www.survivingeconomicabuse.org
  • Turn2us helps people in financial need gain access to welfare benefits, charitable grants and other financial help - www.turn2us.org.uk



Comments are closed.

    News Archive

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Armed Forces
    Banks
    BBC
    Committees
    Crime
    Culture
    Devolved Matters
    EU
    Family
    Gorseinon
    Money
    Sport
    Trade Unions
    Weekly Update

Contact Tonia
PRIVACY POLICY
  • Home
  • About Tonia
  • Latest News
  • Get in touch
  • Advice Surgeries
  • COVID-19