Why are single women feeling the worst effects of the housing crisis?

Households headed by single women are spending the highest proportion of their income on housing costs and are most likely to be discriminated against by a broken system, writes Hannah Fearn

The rental market is so heated that some prospective tenants are being asked to find a year’s rent upfront (Getty)

When Claire*, 33, separated from her abusive partner she was living in Ireland and was determined to move her family back home to her native England. Now a single mum to three children, one with autism and learning disabilities, she needed enough money for the journey home and to put a deposit down on a property in which they could start over.

Claire’s friends astonished her with the speed at which they rallied around. She found the perfect house for all four to start over in Wiltshire, but the landlord wanted six months’ rent upfront. Her pals crowd-funded the cash and she settled in, registered her disabled 10-year-old for a special school, and claimed universal credit while she waited for the school place to come through, at which point she could finally get back to work.

“I was looking forward to this year being a fresh start,” she says. “When I moved I was so happy. It was stability; I was thinking this is a new start for me and the kids.”