Poverty among Households with Children: A Comparative Study of Lone Parents and Couples with Children in Norway and Germany

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to compare poverty among lone parents households and couples households with children in Norway and Germany measuring income poverty, material deprivation and receptions of social assistance with some separate numbers for formerly West and East Germany. As expected, the rates of income poverty and material deprivation are generally higher in Germany than Norway, and among lone parents households than among couples with children. However, focusing on receptions of social assistance the results become more complex, with Norwegian lone parents being the household group most frequently receiving social assistance. The results show that the different dimensions of poverty are not independent of one another but at the same time as they are not totally overlapping. Besides the impact of household characteristic and welfare regime, poverty also seems to be related to labor market factors.