write to your MP about single parent discrimination

Up to 80% of single parents face discrimination, and the law does nothing to stop it. Two minutes of your time asks your MP to change that.

You will need your MP’s name and email. Find them here using your postcode. It takes about 30 seconds.

the one thing that makes your letter count

MPs’ offices see a lot of identical campaign emails. What they notice is a constituent writing about their own life. One or two sentences is plenty.

  • Why does this matter to you?

  • What have you seen or experienced that made you care?

your letter

“Dear [insert MP name],

I am a member of your constituency and I am writing to you as [insert something personal here e.g. a single parent/ a single parent ally/ an adult raised by a single parent] about the discrimination that single parents regularly face in the workplace, benefits systems and from businesses. Research conducted by the campaign group Single Parent Rights has shown that up to 80% of single parents face discrimination.

The stigma single parents face from decades of negative stereotyping, paired with the bias towards two-parent families, means this discrimination occurs across all areas of life. The lack of protections afforded single parents means that this discrimination continues unchecked, leaving single parents to be legally treated as second class citizens. We see this time and again in how single parents are treated by employers and landlords, but also in how policies treat single parents.

Did you know that a family with one parent who cannot work due to disability is entitled to the Working Families childcare offer, but a disabled single parent is not? What about the fact that single parents must earn as much as two people in a couple to avoid being benefit capped - even when they are on maternity leave, yet they lose their child benefit entitlement at half the household income of a coupled family.

I stand with single parents and the Single Parent Rights’ campaign group to call on the government to add single parents as a protected characteristic to the UK Equality Act. Only once single parents are a recognised group in law, protected from unfair treatment, will single parents be treated equally by all and able to thrive in society. 

I look forward to hearing from you on this matter and how you plan to support this motion in Parliament. Single Parent Rights have a briefing which goes into more detail which they would be happy to send you. You can contact them directly on singleparentrights@gmail.com

Yours sincerely,

[insert name and postcode (your MP won’t be able to respond unless you can show you are a constituent of theirs)]”

add anything else that affects you

If other issues affect you, you can add these to your email. For example:

  • Problems with UC work conditionality

  • Lack of support during parental leave

  • Childcare costs or eligibility issues

  • The impact of the benefit cap

You don’t need to cover everything, just what’s most important to you.

did your mp reply?

Send us what your MP said, supportive or not. We are building a picture of where support sits in Parliament, and it is how we know which MPs to approach next.

take further action

You don’t have to stop there. Once you’ve contacted your MP, you can also: