Case Study: Give lone parents credit, banks told: PHILLIP INMAN Single parents struggling with debts are ill-served by the banking industry, which punishes them with high interest rates on loans or refuses to offer credit at all, pushing them into the arms of doorstep lenders, the charity One Parent Families said yesterday. Despite large government subsidies through the tax credit system, which have improved the finances of single parents over the past four years. banks and other lenders continue to discriminate against them and force them to pay more for credit. Almost half (48%) of single-parent families had been in arrears in the past year, compared with a quarter of two-parent families. Even those parents who choose to work often fail to rid themselves of short-term, costly debts. The incidence of debt among working lone parents is twice as high as among couples where one person is in work- 14% compared to 7%, according to the report. The charity said a 32-page report, Personal Finance and One-Parent Families: The Facts, revealed the wide-ranging problems faced by lone r who were more likely to use overdrafts, credit cards and personal loans than couples with children. Banks had to do more to