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Single-parent families suffer financial difficulties

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By Bahk Eun-ji

The average income of single-parent households is only half that of two-parent households, a recent report showed Tuesday.

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gettyimagesbank
Their relative poverty leads to more time spent earning money and less time for childcare, so separate support measures in childcare are required for single-parent families, the report said.

According to the report released by the National Assembly Research Service (NARS), the monthly income of a single-parent family was 3.54 million won ($3,003) on average, only 51 percent of two-parent households' average monthly income of 6.95 million won.

The report was based on a survey of 2,500 single parents across the country last year by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

The poverty rate of single-parent households was also much higher than two-parent families. Some 46 percent of single-parent households were making less than half of the nation's median income, a high figure compared to 3.9 percent of two-parent ones.

In such conditions, single parents are forced to work more hours and thus their children are left alone at home longer than their peers in two-parent families.

More than 21 percent of elementary schoolchildren in single-parent families were left alone for more than four hours a day, while 16.9 percent had to stay without care for three to four hours, 9.8 percent, for two to three hours, 15.5 percent, for one to two hours, and 36.3 percent, for less than an hour, according the ministry's 2015 survey.

Their time spent alone is much longer compared to children in two-parent households: over 61 percent of them stayed without a guardian for less than an hour a day, and only 3.3 percent did so for more than four hours.

Experts pointed out in the report that single parents cannot share childcare and financial responsibilities with partners, so they are more likely to face financial difficulties than two-parent households.

The report suggested the government provide adequate support to prevent financial difficulties and create a better environment for children with single parents. One of the proposals was increasing paid childcare leave for single-parent families. In Korea, two-parent families can take up to 104 weeks of childcare leave because both the husband and wife can take 52 weeks each, but single mothers can take only six weeks and single fathers get 52 weeks.

Paid vacation is essential to help single parents take care of their children without financial problems, NARS researcher Heo Min-sook said in the report.

"Separate policies for single-parent family are needed to guarantee their right to raising children without job insecurity," Heo said.


Bahk Eun-ji ejb@koreatimes.co.kr


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