by Tony Rucinski, Coalition for Marriage (Image: Wikipedia)
Successive governments have undermined almost every aspect of marriage. The part that still stands? A man may have only one wife at a time. In the UK, a married man who marries again commits bigamy, a crime punishable by years in prison. Yet the Government itself shows the way round this rule. The Ministry of Justice has told MPs that a polygamous marriage made abroad “will normally be recognised” here, if it was lawful there and in both spouses’ home countries. So a man can live here with multiple wives, and the State not only recognises them but Pension Credit even pays extra for each additional one. Yesterday, Richard Holden MP led a debate in the House of Commons on stopping the benefits system recognising these marriages.
The Government admits it has no idea how many men here have more than one wife. It “does not collect data on polygamous marriages”. It says even counting the claimants in polygamous households would be “disproportionate in cost”, yet calls the number “very small and declining”. On Monday, Neil Duncan-Jordan MP asked the Department for Work and Pensions how many pensioners in polygamous marriages are entitled to extra Pension Credit and Housing Benefit. The answer is due today. But in June, the Department admitted it “does not hold information in respect of Pension Credit”. It told MPs that “Polygamous marriages are illegal in the UK”, but that it has “no plans to change the existing benefit rules” that recognise them anyway.