Absentee Fathers and the Welfare Effect

                 Absentee Fathers & the Welfare Effect

Fathers are never stigmatized as participants in the family’s social structure and often live outside of the social welfare system. They are required to pay child support or face jail time as a ‘Deadbeat’ Dad. However he is rarely stigmatized like the Mother of his children. He is free to begin a new life and a new family. He is basically a free man….or is he?

According to the Washington Post, Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers’. In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. The US Census added 160,000 new families with children to the roles. However the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.

Vincent DiCaro, Vice President of the National Fatherhood Initiative stated:

America is awash in poverty, crime, drugs and other problems, but more than perhaps anything else, it all comes down to this: Deal with absent fathers, and the rest follows. People “look at a child in need, in poverty or failing in school, and ask, ‘What can we do to help?’ But what we do is ask, ‘Why does that child need help in the first place?’ And the answer is because the child lacks a responsible and involved father.

Another problem cited by Mr. DiCaro is the spiraling income gap inequity. Married couples with children average $80,000 per year in wages. Single Mothers barely earn $24,000. “We have one class that thinks

marriage and fatherhood is important, and another which does not.  This is causing the income ‘inequality gap’ to get wider.”

According to census data, DiCaro found that although income is the primary predictor, the lack of live-in fathers is also overwhelmingly a black problem, regardless of poverty status.

Among blacks, nearly 5 million children, or 54 percent, live with only their mother.  Just 12 percent of black families below the poverty line have two parents present, compared with 41 percent of impoverished Hispanic families and 32 percent of poor white families. In all but 11 states, most black children do not live with both parents. In every state, 7 in 10 white children do. In all states but Rhode Island and Massachusetts, most Hispanic children do. In Wisconsin, 77 percent of white children and 61 percent of Hispanics live

with both parents, compared with more than 25 percent of black children. Maine, Vermont and West Virginia have the lowest dual-parenthood rates for whites. 

Perhaps the Welfare system should address the absentee Fathers through family counseling and sustainable jobs.