measures that could change everything

In 2020, single-parent families represented 25% of families according to INSEE. And among them women, mostly women. 82% of single-parent families are managed by single mothers. Between sole or alternate custody, school fees, daily expenses, unpaid child support, they are often the ones who carry all of them on their shoulders. Hard to get your head out of the water in these conditions. Timid progress is coming in 2023 for single moms. While it is currently limited to children aged 6, the supplement for free choice of childcare (or CMG) will be awarded until the child is 12 for single-parent families. A notable step forward when you know the cost of childcare, but there is still a lot to do.

Shane Love is a single mother of a 7-year-old boy, she is the author of the book Single mom, between loneliness and freedom. Living well with single parenthood, at Larousse. She is also the creator of the podcast hello.solos. She details the measures that could change the daily lives of single mothers.

Unlock more financial aid

“Single parents benefit from specific aid, but it is not enough. We must release more financial aid for single mothers, that includes the daycare system, extracurricular activities, vacations. We need more financial support, we are alone to take care of our child! It includes aid without income conditions, aid for housing, childcarebut also for the school holidays which return every six weeks.

Increase the amount of child support

30% of alimony is not paid today. It is a scandal, the CAF takes over the payment a little bit but it remains superficial and long. Even when alimony is given, its amount is often derisory, it only represents between 8 and 10% of the father’s salary, even if it is calculated according to his income and the mode of care, it is not enough. In addition, it is very complicated to obtain alimony, we have to monitor everything so that the steps are taken in due time. The amounts should be increased. We ask on average 20% of salary for alimony.”

Facilitate administrative procedures

“The administrative procedures take a considerable amount of time and unfortunately single mothers don’t have that much time. When couples are several to do their files, we are alone, so we need help. For example for divorce, there is a lot of paper to do and processing times are very long. They could simplify the administrative procedures and reduce the waiting time between the filing of the file and the judgment.”

Easier access to housing

“It would be better to put priority on accession social housing for single mothers. It’s very complicated for a single-parent family to access it because you only have one salary and one file. We could set up a “state guarantor” so that we can have easy access to housing, we need more financial aid.”

Integrating single parenthood into company HR policies

According to INSEE, in 2020 15% of single mothers were unemployed, by way of comparison, it is twice as much as women in a relationship. The most edifying: a third of single mothers live below the poverty line! “Parenthood needs to be even more integrated within companies and in particular the subject of single parenthood. Employers need help as much as we do, especially to adapt to schedules. It’s time to stop meetings after 5:30 p.m. and be flexible about working from home. We are also asking for more sick child leavebecause at the moment single mothers only benefit from 5 days in the private sector and 3 in the public sector. It would be good, for example, if we could recover those of the father because he does not have custody of them! Anyway, even when you become a mom in the business world, it’s complicated and a solo mom it’s kind of the last link in the maternity chain so everything that is already hard for a mother will be much harder for a single mother.”

Create a single-parent family card

“Create a card for a single parent family with all the advantages of a large family for example, I think it’s not complicated to set up, but it would help us a lot. What I often say is that when you become a single mom, whatever the circumstances in which you become one, the rhythm of society does not change, it does not adapt. We have to manage!”
In 2020 in France there were more single-parent families than large families according to INSEE.

Parenting writer

Zoé is on a work-study program, she joined the aufeminin team in September 2022, she writes for the parenting section. Committed and curious, Zoé likes to write to advance…