Government must tackle the greatest social problem of our age – marriage breakdown

Feb 18, 2018 by Jill

by T A Pascoe, The Conservative Woman:

A fortnight ago the Government confirmed that it would look at how to support the institution of marriage in policymaking.

Kit Malthouse, Minister for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance, pledged to examine the possibility of a ministerial working group while responding to a motion moved by Derek Thomas MP.

This is to be strongly welcomed, although it must be placed in context. To date, this has not been a pro-marriage government.

Conservative-led governments since 2013 have failed to prioritise marriage in either social or economic policy. Indeed, the Conservative Party manifesto for the last election did not mention marriage at all. To all intents and purposes it appears to have been dropped as a campaigning issue.

As such, there has been no real-terms extension to the transferable tax allowance for married couples introduced by George Osborne.

In last year’s Budget, the Government announced an extra £39million to be spent on supporting couples. However, this is dwarfed by the size of the problem. The cost of family breakdown has soared in the last decade to £51billion, more than the spending on debt interest, transport or even defence.

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See also: Christian reaction to ‘dire’ marriage slowdown, by Alex Williams, Premier