The average couple-family, where one partner has a job, is £1 a week better off than the average workless one-parent family because lone parents get so much extra support from the state, according to a study by the right-wing think-tank, Centre for Policy Studies.

Such policies, the report says, put Britain on course to be the lone-parent capital of the Western world.

The report argues that the system of means-tested tax credits and benefits acts as a perverse incentive for couples to split up or to not get married in the first place because it does not acknowledge the needs of the second adult in married or cohabiting families.

Jill Kirby, the author of the report The Price of Parenthood, says that this is grossly unfair on low and middle- income married-couple families who work hard and who stay together, because it forces them to subsidise workless lone parents. It also acts as a disincentive for middle-income married couples to have children.

“Today, lone parents, especially those with more than one child, can be much more generously compensated by the State than the equivalent couple household,” she said.

Ms Kirby’s research, based on analysis of the system of means-tested tax credits and benefits, estimates that a lone-parent household raising two children costs the public more than £11,000 a year in benefits if the parent is not working.

She compares this with a married couple with two children where one spouse earns the average wage of £24,000. Currently, Mr and Mrs Average pay £5,000 more a year in taxes than they would receive in benefits. If they separate, their income could rise by at least 35 per cent because of the benefits they would be entitled to. Their two households could receive £7,000 more in benefits than they paid in tax.

With the proportion of children living in lone-parent households standing at 27 per cent, Ms Kirby asks whether such a system is sustainable. She points out that government spending on child welfare support now stands at around £22 billion, a real rise of 52 per since Labour came to power.

Ms Kirby suggests that Britain should learn from the US where the proportion of children living in lone-parent households is now steady at 27 per cent but where welfare claimants have fallen by 54 per cent since 1994.The US approach has been to encourage lone parents into work, limit welfare to a total of five years over their lifetime and encourage couples to stay together.

In Britain, the lone-parent household is on the increase. According to Eurostat, lone-parent families now make up 17 per cent of households with children, higher than in any other country in Europe, apart from Sweden, at 22 per cent.

Nicola Simpson, the chief executive of One Parent Families, said, however, that it was absurd to suggest that lone-parent families had an easier life.

“One third of lone-parent families live on gross incomes of less than £150 per week compared with just 5 per cent of couples. The figures in the report are based on assuming that an average couple family with one earner has mortgage costs three times higher than a lone parent’s rent but that is not to compare like with like,” she said.

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said that any move to make the benefits and tax credits favour couples with children would increase child poverty. The Treasury said the report was selective and misleading.

DEBATE

Are attitudes to lone parents chaning?

Send your e-mails to
debate@thetimes.co.uk

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Should Knox’s trial even have reached the courtroom?
• All that glitters is not sold in Wright’s world
• Believe it or not, Big Brother is your friend