Sole parent families, which are primarily households headed by women, experience considerable social and economic disadvantage. Despite this, there is limited research that shows the specifics of this disadvantage, identifies variations across indicators, how these have changed over time and how sole parents respond, adapt and overcome disadvantage over their life courses. This research fills these gaps through a detailed examination of several indicators measuring social and economic wellbeing for sole parents for the last 25 to 30 years in Australia. 

The paper suggests that policy reforms to income support payments and conditions introduced in the 2000s, namely the welfare to work reforms, may have worsened the wellbeing of sole parent families. The 2023 government amendments, which increased sole parents’ eligibility for financial assistance, may ease some of the disadvantage sole parent families experience.

Key findings

• Sole parent households with dependent children made up 10% of all families at the most recent census in 2021.
• Sole parent families are one of Australian society’s most disadvantaged groups. The last 25 to 30 years has seen a worsening of their wellbeing.
• The economic pressures that sole parents face often flow through to other domains of wellbeing.
• The poorest sole parents have much higher caring demands and more health issues than sole parents who have higher levels of economic resources, making it much harder for this group to be employed.
• When parents transition to sole parenthood, their wellbeing worsens a great deal before improving in the years after. The recovery time has become longer in the last decade.