'Adverse selection' features of poverty amongst lone mothers

<p>The growth in the number of lone-parent families is striking. There were 570,000 in 1971, 750,000 in 1976, 940,000 in 1984, and 970,000 in 1985. In 1986 the figure was 1.01 million, 35 per cent higher than a decade before (Haskey, 1989). According to the 1988 General Household Survey, lone-parent families now form about 16 per cent of all families with dependent children.</p>