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Single parent families in 2015. Data: Ministry of Gender Equality and Family

The household income of single-parent families in South Korea who are raising children by themselves following a divorce or the death of their spouse is less than half of the national average, a recent survey found. In addition, half of single parents with a job have to work long hours - more than 10 hours a day - in order to make ends meet.

These were some of the findings of a 2015 fact-finding study on single-parent families, which was published by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Mar. 22. The study was conducted from May to December of last year on 2,552 single-parent families who are raising children below 19 years of age.

As of 2014, there were an estimated 560,000 single parents altogether in the country who are raising children younger than 19.

The most common reason people become single parents is because of divorce, at 77.1%. This was followed by bereavement, at 15.8%. Just 7.1% of single parents had children out of wedlock.

Single parents were 43.1 years old on average and had an average of 1.6 children, the study found.

The most frequent type of single-parent family was one in which the mother was raising the children, at 47.3%. Other family types, by order of frequency, were single fathers raising children (19.8%), mothers and children living with other family members (17.8%) and fathers and children living with other family members (15.1%).

The average monthly income for single-parent households was 1.90 million won (US$1,640). This was 48.7% of the average disposable income of households taken as a whole, which was 3.9 million won (according to a 2014 survey of household finance and welfare).

Single-parent households also faced worse living conditions than the average family. The percentage of such households that owned their own house was at 21.2%, down from 23.5% in 2012. Meanwhile, the percentage who pay rent on top of a deposit had increased from 17.8% to 26.4% over the same period.

According to 2014 government statistics on housing, 53.6% of all South Koreans own their house.

While 87.4% of single parents were employed, 36.7% were working on a temporary or day-to-day basis, which means that they tend to lack stable employment.

In addition, 45.5% of single parents who responded to the survey work at small companies, with one to four employees.

Wages from work (or business income, in the case of the self-employed) varied with the gender of the householder. Female single-parent householders made an average of 1.48 million won a month, while male single-parent householders made an average of 2.04 million won.

It was also common for single parents to deal with long working hours. Of single parents who were employed, 48.2% said that they worked at least 10 hours a day.

Just 29.8% of single parents had a five-day workweek, while 20.7% did not even have regular days off. Even after returning home, female householders spent 5 hours and 30 minutes a day doing housework and taking care of their children, while male householders spent 4 hours and 6 minutes a day on the same activities.

Under these circumstances, a high percentage of single parents reported having experienced symptoms of depression. When asked whether they had felt so sad or hopeless that it had affected their daily life for at least two weeks in a row over the past year, 20.2% of single parents said that they had. This was twice the rate for the general public.

When single parents who had experienced such symptoms of depression were asked how they dealt with them, 54% of single parents said they put up with them by themselves while 21.9% said they turned to alcohol.

While the biggest difficulty for single parents is finding money to raise and educate their children, 78% of single parents who were unmarried or divorced said they were not legally entitled to receive child support from their former partner or spouse.

In this survey, 41.5% of single parents were receiving government support, either as low-income single parents or as recipients of the basic livelihood benefits.

While the government provides 100,000 won a month in assistance to low-income single parents who are raising children 12 years old or younger, this is so marginal that it has little if any effect.

“Our goal is to increase assistance for raising children to 150,000 won a month by 2017. We will increase support across the board for single parents, including helping them with jobs, childcare and homes,” said Kim Ga-ro, chief of the Family Support Division at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

By Hwangbo Yon, staff reporter

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