Queries to the askonefamily national helpline, a specialist support line for one-parent families, increased by 15% in 2022 as families struggled with tightening energy, food and housing prices.
The statistic was revealed as One Family, Ireland’s national organisation for one-parent families, launched its Annual Report for 2022.
“The surge in queries to our helpline is more evidence of the pressure one-parent families are experiencing. Parents sought advice on housing, finance and social welfare as they strained to keep their heads above water. This is a direct result of Government policy and will only get worse; queries to the helpline in Q1 2023 are already 30% ahead of 2022. The budget, last year, had next to nothing for one-parent families despite all the evidence that showed these families are amongst the poorest in the state and needed targeted support.
“In 2022, One Family issued almost €4,000 worth of food vouchers to struggling families and over 500 Christmas gifts to children. These donations were sourced through the generosity of companies and the public, and without them many families would have gone hungry, or children would have had nothing for Christmas,” Karen Kiernan One Family CEO, said.
“If Government are serious about ending child poverty, there needs to be meaningful targeted supports for one-parent families in Budget 2024. One-parent families are not looking for hand-outs but for supports to help them escape poverty. A stand-alone child maintenance system is urgently required to pull families out of poverty. Child maintenance and child benefit shouldn’t be assessed as means for access to public supports and schemes. These are all achievable; all Government needs to do is target resources on families who need it the most instead of national giveaways,” Carly Baily, One Family Policy Officer, added.
