Sideways News

The majority of single parents believe society views them negatively, Gingerbread said

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tory leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg have all signed a pledge to debunk commonly held misconceptions about single parents.

Charity Gingerbread has secured the support of all three party leaders to expose and challenge false stereotypes about single parents - who are sometimes labelled as "benefit scroungers" or "bad mothers", according to a recent survey.

A recent YouGov poll aimed at uncovering public perceptions of single parent families found a slew of misconceptions, mainly concerning the age of single parents.

According to the survey, there is a presumption that single parents are often teenagers or young adults who have never married. However, the average age of the lone parent is 36 and most have been married, Gingerbread said.

The survey also discovered a gulf between public perception and reality concerning single parent employment. A YouGov poll recently found that the proportion of people who believe most single parents don't work has increased to 65%, at a time when the employment rate among lone mothers and fathers has in fact risen to almost 60%.

Gingerbread chief executive Fiona Weir said: "Single parents are fed up with being portrayed as 'benefit scroungers' or 'bad mothers'. We want to lose these labels in the run up to the general election and welcome support from party leaders as a first step."

The charity's Let's Lose the Labels campaign has been launched to reverse opinion concerning single parents, 83% of which believe they are stigmatised by the general public.