*This is a collaborative post. Everyone is currently struggling with their finances due to the cost-of-living crisis, but no one is more so than single parents. In today’s post, I’ll discuss some of the financial struggles of single parents and offer a few, hopefully, helpful tips on how to navigate them.
What are some of the financial struggles of a single parent? Childcare costs, limited income, food costs, and lack of support are some of the main ones.
The Financial Struggles
Childcare Costs
Childcare costs are a massive hurdle in parenting, never mind when you are a single parent! The biggest thing is you may not have another person to fall back on to help with the childcare, so if you are a working mother or father, you will need to incur childcare costs somewhere. This may be a massive cost depending on the child’s age, and it might be the case that you have to work fewer hours to look after your child yourself if you can’t afford the costs. More often than not a lot of single parents only work part-time or not at all when the child is a younger age, which leads me to the next struggle;
Limited Income
Limited income is a huge struggle when it comes to the financial issues of a single parent. Not only are you the only one putting into the household but as mentioned above you may have to only work part-time or not at all if childcare costs are too high. This may lead to struggling to pay the bills, buying food and also catering to your child’s needs. There is help available though so keep on reading to find out what resources are available;
Financial Support and Helpful Tips
There are many places to find financial support and ways to save money if you know where to look and here are a few I know of:
Benefits Entitlements
There are many benefits you could potentially claim as a single parent and here are some of them:
- Universal Credit
- Child Benefit
- Council Tax Support
and things that help with childcare costs such as the 30 hours of free childcare when they are between 3 and 4, free school meals and breakfast clubs, transport costs and school costs. You can use this handy childcare costs page on the government website to find out what you may be entitled to.
Helpful Money-Saving Tips
There are lots of ways to save money and things you can do to get that bit of extra help. Here are just a few examples;
- Giveaway sites such as Freecycle, Freeloved and Facebook Marketplace where people give away their old things for free. These may be helpful if you require certain bits of furniture or other household items.
- If you are struggling to buy food, there are many food banks around that may be able to help you out. Some of them require food vouchers which you can get from Citizens Advice, a social worker or even your GP.
- If you are looking for activities to do with your child but may not have the money to do expensive things, you can always visit your local library. Nowadays Libraries are much more than just borrowing books. They have a range of free activities for children to do. For the younger ones they have things such as rhymetimes and storytimes and for older children they have craft activities, board games, lego and even computers for them to play games on and learn valuable skills such as coding. Enquire at your local library to see what is available.
Being a single parent and having financial struggles may take a massive toll on your mental health, so please be kind to yourself and if you are struggling please reach out to your GP for help or get in touch with organisations such as Gingerbread which is a service that caters specifically to single parents. You can also check out the MoneyPlus Advice website which has lots of support available including advice on navigating finances as a single parent.
Just know you are not alone and there is help available out there.
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