A Declining Institution

I continue to be in the declining and unfashionable relationship called marriage. Roughly since Labour came in 4% less people are married.

Contrast that with the rise in unmarried couples living together which is the fastest-growing family unit in the UK. In the same 10 years that marriages declined 4%, cohabitation by unmarried couple increased by 65%. In addition lone parents have increased by 8% in the same period.

Now this may just reflect changing ideas on marriage but apparently it also has had another effect on the children of cohabiting families. It was found that 17-year-olds were most likely to be in education if their parents were married and they were not in step-families. A total of 69 per cent of boys and 78 per cent of girls at that age would be in education if they were in a traditional family unit.

So why don't people get married. The obvious answer is that changing ideas have changed our society, but also we have the stupidity of being penalised by the government for being married by an unjust Tax system.

The Tories have proposed bringing back the transferable married couples tax allowance, worth around £20-a-week, this would be aimed at making it easier for one parent to stay at home to look after children or elderly relatives. If applied to all married couples, it would cost £3.2bn a year.

This would be money well spent if the traditional family unit does help ensure everyone gets a good education and redresses an unfair penalty on married couples.

Number of unmarried couples rises by 65% - Independent Online Edition > This Britain