THE attitudes of their parents do more to encourage young single women to keep their babies than the prospect of getting social welfare payments, a new study suggests.
The study, by Mr Tony McCashin, who lectures on social studies at Trinity College, Dublin, also concludes that lone mothers value their independence, enjoy their children and want to find jobs.
Lone parents - including unmarried, separated, divorced, deserted and widowed parents will from January be allowed to earn up to £6,000 per annum and still keep their weekly lone parents allowance, the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said at the launch of the study. The move is meant to make employment a more feasible option for lone parents, he said.
The study, Lone Mothers in, Ireland, is published by Oak Tree Press in association with the Combat Poverty Agency. It was carried out in conjunction with the Parents Alone Resource Centre in Coolock, Dublin and involved extended interviews with 53 mothers.
Mr McCashin told The Irish Times that his findings contradicted the stereotype of young single women keeping their babies so that they can live on social welfare payments. What plays the major part in the decisions is encouragement from their own parents, telling them they do not have to have their babies adopted, or marry, just because they are pregnant.
The study also found that lone parents would like to be able to get work when their children are older but are put off by the highs cost of childcare and other costs connected with work.
Mr De Rossa said that the purpose of substantially easing the means test from January by allowing lone parents to earn £6,000 without losing any part of their allowance is to make employment a more feasible option.
Almost ball the women interviewed for the study said they had to struggle every day to pay for necessities and that this was a source of great worry for them.
At the same time, they enjoyed and valued their independence and this seemed to apply especially to lone mothers who had been in difficult marriages.
Their growing confidence that they could manage on their own, and, in the case of those living with their parents, the need to establish themselves on their own, reinforced their desire to work.
The study praises initiatives already taken to ease the social welfare means test and to improve child benefit payments.