you can be getting quite a tidy amount from the State for doing nothing. Is this an unfair assessment?
Yes and no.
Yes, the welfare aids to raising your family are higher for a single parent, but that's about the only 'gain'.
On the negative side, single parent family's sit at the bottom of every wealth accumulation metric you can find - sitting far behind on home ownership %, savings value, net wealth etc etc.
There's very little financial positives from being a single parent when looking at the bigger picture, but they need more financial help to raise their children to the level we aspire as a nation for all our children to be.
Some CSO stats on single parent families:
https://onefamily.ie/policy-campaigns/facts-figures/
Wealth distribution report:
https://www.tasc.ie/download/pdf/the_distribution_of_wealth_in_ireland_final.pdf
"The home ownership rate for single parents is 26.3%, which is less than half the rate for couples with children and single adults, and less than 40% of the average rate for all households (70%)
The average median value of financial assets for all households is €6,300. This means that half of all households have financial assets worth less than €6,300. For single parent households that median value is €500. This is explained in large part by the differences in the value of their savings.
The median value of savings for all respondents was €4,500, but for single parents it is €300. The average debt-to-asset ratio in the respondents is 37.7%, while the debt to asset ratio for single parent households is more than double that at 78.3%. On average 18.4% of households in the survey were classified as credit constrained, but for single parent families the rate is more than double at 42.1% "