Single parents with two children classed as 'large families' for financial purposes

ONE-PARENT families with two children or more will be officially recognised as 'large' family units for the purposes of discounts, grants and tax breaks, the government has announced.

Secretary of State for Social Services and Equality, Mario Garcés, says the move has been on the cards and has been a 'political commitment' of his party, the right-wing PP, since they regained power in the autumn of 2016.

Until now, only families with three or more children – irrespective of whether they were living with one parent or two – were classed as 'large families', but recent reports showed that one in 10 single parents in the country are living in actual poverty, defined in Spain as 'at risk of social exclusion'.

Also, families with four children or more will be classified as 'special large families', giving them even greater support than that awarded to 'large families' with three children.

Save the Children has already urged the Spanish government to recognise single parents, who continue to be women in 80% of cases, in light of their much higher poverty risk.

Single mums account for around 1.5 million households in Spain, of whom 150,000 are living in 'severe poverty'.

Over 750,000 single mothers do not work, due to lack of opportunities that would allow them to combine childcare with their jobs, or simply through lack of time, if their children are not yet at school.