Food insecurity among single parent families

Single parent households face multiple barriers in affording a healthy diet, including lower average incomes, disproportionately high household costs compared to households with two earners, and rising childcare costs, all of which place pressure on food budgets.

Figures show 35% of single adult households with children experienced food insecurity in January, compared with 17.6% of multi adult households with children.

Government interventions aiming to alleviate food insecurity for families have failed to keep pace with the financial pressures, like rising childcare costs, that single parent households in particular are facing.

This briefing highlights that more needs to be done to address the barriers to employment and the rising costs of food and household essentials that disproportionately impact single parent families and features six policy recommendations that would help alleviate food insecurity experienced by those affected.