Single parent and unemployed: an analysis of data of the general social counseling of Caritas

In collaboration with the German welfare association Caritas, the CorrelAid team analysed data collected through their annual survey of clients of the “Allgemeine Sozialberatung” (general social counselling). The service provides counselling for problems ranging from debt, unemployment, over inter-familiar problems to social services. The team conducted an explorative data analysis in R, including 37,000 questionnaires from 2010 to 2021, and pointed out several trends and core problems: For example, single mothers face a significantly higher risk of experiencing long-term unemployment than other social groups. This effect is especially pronounced for those single mothers with lower levels of education. The analysis results were published in the journal “Neue Caritas” and provide data-based evidence for Caritas’ core demands vis-à-vis the German government, advocating for better support for vulnerable groups.