GOVERNMENT MINISTERS have faced calls to make being a single parent from a black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) background a protected characteristic under the Equality Act as discrimination takes a drastic spike during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The calls are led by campaign group Single Parents Rights (SPR) after surveying over 1,000 participants,  with new research emerging that single parents form BAME background are 96% more likely to experience discrimination in comparison to 79% of single parents that are white.

The group has labelled the statistic as an “unprecedented number” which has heightened during the Covid-19 pandemic and reveals that discrimination against single parents across all areas of life, including ‘single supplement’ charges for days out, being refused rental properties, and being disadvantaged in government policies.

SPR reported that child benefit rules mean two-parent families can earn up to £100,000 before their entitlement is affected, but it is twice that for single parents.

Furthermore, single parents that are registered carers are excluded from 30 hours of funded childcare for 3–4-year-olds because entitlement is based on having a partner in work.

Single mum Abi has described how she dealt with “several negative comments” about being a black, single mum and Vijay who is from an Asian background, said that his employer did not properly consider “the challenges I had in my life due to being a single parent and reprimanded and humiliated and bullied me to the extent that I couldn’t take it anymore and quit.”

During the pandemic, up to 51% of single parents have reported that they have faced heightened discrimination including being turned away from shops and enduring balancing work and homeschooling.

Single parents living with disabilities and those with household incomes of £25,000 and below, and young single parents have also been heavily affected.

Speaking on the impact this had on single parents, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, MP for Streatham and Member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee said: “The pandemic has highlighted the way policy-making is often oriented around the nuclear family, leaving single parents overlooked. Including single parents as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act would be a step towards addressing the disparities they face across a range of areas as a result of this.”

The SPR campaign, founded last year by Ruth Talbot to provide support for single parents, has received backing from over twenty UK based parenting groups and family support organisations.

She has called for more understanding that “prejudice, institutional bias, and a lack of legal protection” has exasperated problems for a vulnerable group in society.

She said: “For some groups, including black single parents and single parents of colour, this discrimination is compounded by racial discrimination creating even greater challenges.

“The impact goes beyond single parents themselves, affecting their children and wider society. We are calling on the UK government to address this discrimination by adding single parents as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act.”

• Names of single parents have been changed.