Number of lone-parent families rockets

The figures show that in 2011 there were 1.96 million lone parents with dependent children, compared to 1.7 million in 2001.

The popularity of marriage is also continuing to decline, according to the Office for National Statistics’ Families and Households in the UK 2001 to 2011 bulletin.

There were 262,000 fewer married and civil partnership couples in 2011 than there were in 2001. This is part of a trend since the early 1970s that has seen an increase in cohabiting couples. The number of cohabiting couples increased from 2.1m to 2.9m between 2001 and 2011.

The proportion of cohabiting couple families that have dependent children stood at 38 per cent in 2011, the same percentage as for married couple families.

Fiona Weir, chief executive of single parents’ charity Gingerbread, said the figures highlighted the need for government policies to "support the diversity of family life in the UK and avoid approaches that work for only one type of family".

"The news that there are now 1.96 million single-parent families in the UK shows that they are very much part of normal family life. Most single parents did not expect to be bringing up their child alone but most are doing a good job in difficult circumstances," Weir added. 

The release of the new figures comes ahead of a challenge to government plans to charge lone parents to use the Child Support Agency (CSA) in the House of Lords next week.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern has tabled an amendment during the Welfare Reform Bill’s report stage in the House of Lords, which would waive charges for parents who have no alternative other than using the service.

Those for whom private payment arrangements are either not possible or appropriate would not be charged under Lord Mackay’s amendment.

Weir said: "The government plans to charge parents to use the CSA in order to ‘incentivise’ them to instead make private arrangements.

"But in reality most single parents go to the CSA as a last resort – when they have to, not because they want to.  If a child’s other parent simply won’t respond or refuses to pay, these government proposals will penalise the parent with main care and her children. That’s plainly unfair."