Marriage may be changing, but it is for Parliament, not judges, to alter its definition

Feb 10, 2017 by Jill

Telegraph Editorial:

This week is Marriage Week, an annual celebration of the institution that was once the bedrock of society. But in the past 40 years, the number of unmarried couples living together has risen rapidly. In 1996, there were fewer than three million people cohabiting; by 2015, the number had risen to more than six million.

Recent figures show marriage rates beginning to creep up again, but this is principally among the better off. Almost 90 per cent of the wealthiest parents marry compared with only 24 per cent of the poorest. One positive sign is that the divorce rate, which soared in the Eighties, has fallen back; but that could be because those who do marry are more definite in their commitment than might once have been the case.

Those who want to shore up the institution have been fighting a losing battle for years as benefits that were once exclusive to married couples have been watered down, and those that still exist are being targeted. Campaigners for change have welcomed the Supreme Court ruling that a woman denied payments from her late long-term partner’s occupational pension was entitled to be treated as if she had been married.

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