Family structure and kinship

Abstract

Family structure and patterns of household formation can be related to poverty in a number of ways. Larger households can include a larger number of potential earners as well as more mouths to feed. In families with children, particularly young children, the mother is more likely to be economically inactive – or to be working part time, with the lower rates of remuneration that typically go with such work. And families with large numbers of children are more likely to be in poverty than those with fewer. But lone-parent households, which tend to be smaller, have very high risks of poverty. older people can create demands on household income, but they can also bring in pensions and other assets, as well as potentially serving as sources of childcare, thus facilitating parents’, or rather mothers’, labour market participation. Larger households may put pressure on housing and create associated problems of housing deprivation, such as overcrowding; while the relative costs of housing and of maintenance will be that much greater for smaller households. The structure and characteristics of households (or, more commonly, the immediate family unit or benefit unit) as well as the sources of income within them will also affect benefit entitlement. Thus, means-testing may mean that the impact of unemployment on one partner may raise questions about whether it is worthwhile for the other partner to work. The presence of dependent children will create eligibility for child benefit; but the presence of non-dependent children in work may reduce Housing Benefit payments. To the extent that these forms of household structure vary by ethnicity, so will the associated risks of poverty vary with ethnic group.