Report finds bias against two-parent families
Married parents could increase their income by up to two thirds if they separate and quit their jobs, according to a new report.
The report by the Centre for Policy Studies attacked the Government for fostering benefit dependency and penalising hard working families.
Author Jill Kirby discerned a bias against two-parent families.
“Welfare support should be limited to short-term relief of hardship and should not be a substitute for family support,” she said.
“It seems having children is relatively easy if you are rich enough not to be affected by tax and benefit considerations. It is also less daunting if you are poor enough to be fully compensated by the state for the cost of those children.
“But for the families in the middle, the sums do not look good. The impact on their living standards of having and rearing children appears to be leading to postponement of marriage and parenthood and reduction in family size, or perhaps missing out on family life altogether.”
The report compared a couple with one breadwinner on £24,000 a year, with children aged four and two and a £90,000 mortgage, and a unemployed single mum with children of the same age, living rent-free in a council home and on benefits.
After tax and housing costs, the report claims each of the four inhabitants from the working family would receive £55.71, while the single mum and her children would have £54.06 in disposable income.
According to the report, the number of children in one-parent families has risen by more than a quarter to 3.2 million since 1997.
The report by the right-wing think-tank said a lone-parent household raising two children on welfare costs the taxpayer more than £11,000 a year in benefits alone.
