Presenters:
Ms Ho Kah Yoke

Moderator:
Dr Robyn Tan

Time: 4:00pm to 5:30pm (Registration starts at 3.45pm)

Venue: FASS Dean’s Office Seminar Room B, AS7-01-16/17/18, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore
Address: 5 Arts Link (S)117570

Abstract:
Over the past two decades, the total number of single parents with children has increased by close to 30%. In the face of growing pressure on the definition of the family, the government has continued to reiterate that policy responses should not encourage single-parenthood as a lifestyle and risk eroding societal values. Key policy debates thus revolve around the differentiated benefits for different groups of single parents, and the perceived fairness of these arrangements.

The accounts of these single mothers show how they learnt different ways of coping with struggles that accompany single parenthood. While their experience of learning to manage resources are potentially empowering, they tended to be more time- and cash-poor, and the quality of their decisions suffered due to the multiple barriers they needed to overcome to meet their basic needs.

Our findings suggest that it is, therefore, worth considering if policy stances and targeted interventions could be implemented to support low-income single parent households with better chances of starting anew, because this would have impact on the children from these families.

Presenters' profile:

Ho Kah Yoke - Kah Yoke has been a social worker with @27 Family Service Centre, a service by Montfort Care, for the past 3 years. Prior to this, she had several years of experience in youth work and child protective work settings. She graduated from NUS with Bachelor of Social Sciences in Social Work (with Honours) in 2011, and had since been keenly interested in issues relating to households with low-income and struggles which they face.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED

For enquiries, please contact Ms Jess Tan