When the Unmarried parenthood: new insights from the Millennium Cohort Study came out in December, the tabloid press predictably seized on the report's suggestion that children are better off when they're born within marriage. However, the findings provide a more wide-reaching analysis of the UK's social make-up and could direct children's workers to at-risk groups.
The Millennium Cohort Study is over-sampled for children in deprived areas and wards with high ethnic-minority populations. The research, led by Professor Kathleen Kiernan of the London School of Economics, highlights that, of the 18,475 babies born in 2000-2001 that were surveyed, 70 per cent of children born to single mothers were living in families on income support. In contrast, only 3 per cent of children born to married parents were in families receiving income support, while children born to cohabiting partners sat in-between - 12.7 per cent were in families receiving income support.
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