Report criticises benefits system for families

A couple with children are only £1 better off than a lone parent, a new report has claimed.

However, if the couple were to split up, the government would increase their income by between 35% and 65%, the report, published by the Centre for Policy Studies, claimed.

Jill Kirby, who wrote the report entitled 'The Price of Parenthood', says that the level of benefits for households with children has doubled since 1997, currently standing at £22 billion a year. However, the report said that lone parents were much more likely to get more from the state benefits than families.

The report found that a two-parent, one-earner family on an average income of £24,000, with a mortgage and two young children is only one pound better off than a lone parent household entirely dependent on welfare.

However, the study claimed, if the couple were to split up, their weekly income after tax and housing costs would increase by 35%, if the husband paid child maintenance, and 65% if he did not.

The report estimated that the cost of a family break-up to the Treasury was between £8,450 and £12,000 and also stated that every lone parent family with two children in the UK costs the tax payer more than £11,000 a year in benefits alone.

Cambridge Economics Professor Bob Rowthorn criticised the current system: "The more money is spent on subsidising lone parents, the greater the incentive there is for couples to break up".

The report also revealed that lone-parent households were five times more likely than couples to be collecting welfare payments and more than twice as likely to receive tax credits.

The Centre for Policy Studies claimed that the cost of this is "unsustainable".

Commenting on the report, Jill Kirby said: "The bias against two-parent families must be removed. Welfare support should be limited to short-term relief of hardship and should not be a substitute for family support. When assessing a family's needs, both parents should be involved in that assessment, regardless of whether they are living together or not."

(KMcA/SP)