Does parental separation increase the risk of child poverty?

Authors: Carole Bonnet (INED), Anne Solaz (INED)

After a separation, the former partners’ standard of living declines, more so for women than for men. Carole Bonnet and Anne Solaz analyse the financial impact of separation on children, most of whom live with their mother after the breakup in France. In many cases, they experience a drop in living standards, with a high risk of exposure to poverty and substandard living conditions. And what about children in alternating residence, an increasingly widespread custody arrangement? How many experience poverty in one or other of their homes? 

Children’s living standards decrease sharply after parental separation, often associated with a decline in their living conditions, especially when they live with a lone mother. The drop is considerable in the year of separation (24%) if the child is recorded on the tax return as living mainly with the mother, but only half as much when recorded as living mainly with the father. The risk of entering poverty is thus heightened.

The poverty rate of children in the year of parental separation is twice as high (29%) as that of children living with both parents (13%), and the gap remains wide in the years following the separation.

The younger the child at the time of separation, the higher the poverty risk. At age 2, more than 35% of children whose parents have just separated are poor versus 22% at age 13.

Some children in alternating residence are poor in one of the parental households, while others live in poverty in both. Among children in alternating residence who can be observed in their two homes in the year of separation, 6% are poor in both households, while 24% are poor in just one, much more often that of the mother (15%) than of the father (9%). 

Published on: 19/04/2023