6 April 2006 - Publication of DWP research report: families with children in Britain: findings from the 2004 Families and Children Study (FACS)
Research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions explores the characteristics and circumstances of families and children in 2004. The report is based on analysis of the Families and Children Study (FACS). This study began in 1999, with a representative sample of all lone parents and low/moderate-income couple families. From 2001 a representative sample of lone parents and all couple families with dependent children were interviewed. The study follows the same families from one year to the next.
FACS provides information about children, their parents and families as a whole across a wide range of subjects. The first part of the report describes findings on: family characteristics, parental health, education, work, family income, benefits and tax credits, savings, housing and material deprivation. The second part of the report describes findings on child characteristics, health, schooling, activities and leisure, maintenance and childcare.
The report published today is: DWP Research Report No. 340 ‘Families With Children in Britain: Findings from the 2004 Families and Children Study (FACS)’ by Matt Barnes, Nick Lyon and Daniel Sweiry.
The main findings include the following:
- Lone parent families, who account for around a quarter of families with dependent children, were consistently worse off than couple families. For example, one-fifth of lone parent families working 16 or more hours per week were in the bottom income quintile compared to one-tenth (12 per cent) of couple families where one parent worked these hours.
- Lone parents were twice as likely to describe their health as ‘not good’ compared with mothers in couple families. Mothers who lived in families where no one worked were more likely to describe their health as ‘not good’ than mothers living in families where at least one parent worked.
- Nearly nine out of ten (88 per cent) non working mothers said there was something specific stopping them from working for 16 or more hours per week. In over half of these cases ‘wanting to be with their children’ was identified as a barrier to work (53 per cent, 5 percentage points higher than 2003).
- Deprivation was associated with worklessness such that one-quarter of lone parent families working less than 16 hours per week could not afford 11 or more items compared to four per cent of lone parents working 16 hours or more per week. A similar pattern was observed between working and non working couple families. There continues to be a slight decrease in certain aspects of material deprivation. The percentage of families who reported going without at least one item because they could not afford it, decreased between 2003 and 2004 from 48 per cent to 46 per cent.
- Half (51 per cent) of families where at least one child had a non-resident parent had an order or agreement for child support. Two-thirds (65 per cent) of families where there was an agreement in place received payments.
- There have been increases in childcare use in 2004: sixty-five per cent of working mothers used childcare (3 percentage points higher than 2003) and 48 per cent of non working mothers used childcare (8 percentage points higher than 2003). Perceptions about the quality of childcare for working mothers increased by three percentage points since 2003 to 57 per cent. Additionally, fewer mothers (three percentage points lower than 2003) reported that there was ‘not enough childcare’ available (35 per cent).
Notes to Editors
- The sample was drawn from Child Benefit records. Interviews with 7,471 families with a total of 12,727 dependent children were conducted in autumn/winter 2003/2004. Main interviews were conducted with the ‘mother figure’ in the household, with partners interviewed where present and willing to participate. 2,902 children aged 11 to 15 years completed a child self-completion questionnaire.
- The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) conducted the fieldwork for the research. NatCen and DWP researchers conducted the analysis of FACS contained in this report.
- ‘Families With Children in Britain: Findings from the 2004 Families and children study (FACS)’ by Matt Barnes, Nick Lyon and Daniel Sweiry. DWP Research Report Series No. 340 is published on 6th April 2006. A summary and copy of the report is available on the DWP website: http//www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/
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Prepared by: Department for Work and Pensions Cross-cutting Strategy and Analysis Directorate