Case Study A is an 18 year old lone parent and also a teenage parent. She has one child, in which she became pregnant with when she was 17 years old. The pregnancy was not planned and this impacted her studies so she was unable to finish her education and go to university like she had planned.
She currently lives with her parents and is unemployed due to childcare being an issue. As her child is under one year old, and she relies on benefits she is unable to afford a private nursery to send her child too and her attending college again in September. Case Study A completed her high school education gaining GCSE's and has also obtained A levels.
Case Study A relies on the benefits she receives each month, she does not have …show more content…
According to (Rowntree Foundation, 2000), a survey conducted in 1999 called the PSE survey, found that lone parents were over twice as likely to be in poverty. It has been found that less than two per cent of single parents are teenagers (Gingerbread.org.uk, 2016). In being a lone, teenage parent it is unlikely that the individual will be able to go back to education or to find a job, due to the cost of childcare, therefore being unemployed until they are able to find childcare.. Eurostat figures show that only 66% of mothers in the UK work, half of those who were surveyed want to go back to work but are unable to due to the cost of childcare (Truss, 2012). This limits their income and does not enable them to earn a higher wage, therefore having a low income.
The feeling of loneliness links to poverty as many single parents are on their own and may not have a support network to fall back on. In a recent poll conducted by Time-use surveys, half of all the participants believed that people were starting to feel lonelier and around 11% had sought help for feeling lonely (Shorthouse, 2014). This links to poverty as being socially isolated and feeling lonely can lead to poor mental health, including depression and suicidal thoughts. A lower self esteem is usually associated with this also (Mind.org.uk,