Single parents more likely to be furloughed or work in lockdown-hit industries, study finds

Some 90 per cent of two million single parents living in UK are mothers, reports Maya Oppenheim

Campaigners warn pandemic has deepened profound disadvantage already faced by single parents by pushing them yet further into poverty (AFP via Getty Images)

Single parents are radically more likely to have been furloughed or work in industries hardest hit by lockdown measures, new research has found.

Campaigners warn the pandemic has deepened the profound disadvantage already faced by single parents by pushing them yet further into poverty and excluding them from the workplace.

The report, carried out by leading single parent charity, Gingerbread, and the Institute for Employment Studies, found three in ten single parents have been furloughed, compared with around one in five coupled parents.