Article for Parliamentary Monitor on the Family
7th October 2005
During the last General election, I was pursued down a street in Ruislip by a young man in a dressing gown.
During the last General election, I was pursued down a street in Ruislip by a young man in a dressing gown. He wanted to tell me that his decision to marry his girlfriend would cost him £400 in lost benefit. He was going to do it anyway, because he thought that it was the right thing to do-but he thought it was wrong for the Government to be sending that signal to young people. Of course he is right . The Government are in denial on this issue and need to take a fresh look.
The issue goes to the heart of a growing concern in my constituency about the breakdown in values that once bound the community together-respect for the law, respect for property and respect for each other. The finger is increasingly pointed at the way children are being brought up today. It is not just the voice of ' Smug Marrieds' (to quote Bridget Jones) or those expressing nostalgia for a golden age of parenthood that probably never existed. Senior London policemen point out that 40 per cent. of street crime in London is committed by 10 to 16-year-olds playing truant. Headmasters of secondary schools confide that all too often it is parents who obstruct rather than support their efforts to instil more discipline in their schools. A growing voice makes the link with clear evidence of family breakdown in Britain and its harmful impact on children.
It is striking how out on a limb we are. Britain is the divorce capital of Europe, with 25 per cent of children living in lone-parent households. That is twice the European average, as measured by EUROSTAT, and the trend shows no sign of slowing. The Government's approach has been to respect personal freedom and to focus on helping those facing the real challenge of bringing up children on their own, in conditions of poverty. Those good intentions are to be supported but I would argue that they have unintended but damaging consequences.
The tax and benefits system now discourages low-earning parents from forming two-parent families. That message comes through strongly in research from a wide range of organisations, including Civitas, Care, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Centre for Policy Studies. It is the inevitable outcome of a system in which income tax is based on individual assessment, with no allowances for marriage, and benefits are based on a joint assessment. Arguably, penalties for marriage are built in to the system.
If that is true, Government policy may be helping to increase the number of children being raised without a father in the home, despite increasingly clear evidence that there is a link between marriage or stable cohabitation and a better outcome for children in terms of health, performance at school , and crime. That being so, is it not time to confront the awkward truth that children growing up outside the family unit may not have equality of opportunity? Is it not time to re-examine where the interests of children lie and ask whether it can be in their interests to penalise couples? Faced with the growing tension between the need to respect personal freedom and the desire to give children the best possible chance, I argue that the Government should at least be neutral in the signals that they send via the tax and benefits system."
