Being a single parent meant having to “depend on Vincent de Paul at Christmas time”, one mother has told Lunchtime Live.

All this week, the show is examining the cost of being single – as well as some of the benefits.

Perhaps nowhere does this matter more than when it comes to parenting. CSO data from 2021 found that 13.1% of single parent families are living in ‘consistent poverty’.

By contrast, that figure falls to 3% for two-parent families.

Speaking to Lunchtime Live, Hannah said she often struggled to make ends meet.

“There were years, going back, that I had to depend on Vincent de Paul at Christmas time,” she said.

“I worked two jobs, the kids would come in from school in the evening and once one was old enough to be there [with the others on their own], I got back in the car and I went out to deliver chips and pizzas.”

Hannah said there was sometimes enough money for her children to go away on school trips - but family holidays were not an option.

“It’s only now that I look back and I realise I depended on my older ones too much,” Hannah said.

“They had a life growing up but they became like a parent.”

A child with his mother walking along the road to sunrise. Picture by: Andrey Deryabin / Alamy Stock Photo

Another issue for single parents is the social isolation that sometimes comes with it. Whereas couples can talk about the shared joys and challenges of raising children, single parents sometimes feel cut off from adult social circles.

“You wouldn’t get invited out,” Hannah said.

“If there were couples going out and you were single, you wouldn’t get invited out.

“It’s a very lonely thing when that happens and that happened a lot over the years.”

'Quite a challenge'

Jim, who raised his son by himself in the West of Ireland, had a similar experience as a single father.

He works as a painter and musician and sometimes took poorly paid gigs just to get out of the house.

“Mondays and Tuesdays, I used to play music in the Quays Bar in Galway,” he said.

“I used to pay a lady to come in and babysit for the Monday and Tuesday night.

“The money I got for the Monday and Tuesday, I never made any money but I needed the headspace to get out and just play and meet people and talk, you know?”

Usually, however, he simply worked while his son was in bed.

“A lot of the time I actually went back to bed  - believe it or not - when he was at school during the day,” he said.

“I worked all night; I’m an artist by occupation and a musician.

“So, I would have tried to paint at night when he was sleeping.”

Jim describes being a single parent “quite a challenge” and this was particularly the case when the recession hit and the price of artwork tumbled.

“It makes you very close,” he said.

“We were very tight; we went through some very lean times and some very good times as well.

“My art career has done very well thankfully but we did have a recession as well.

“In 2008, when everything hit the wall, I can remember having to go and sign on as a single parent… for social benefits.”

In 2013, the family relocated to Jim’s native Northern Ireland and his son is now studying to be an accountant in Belfast.

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