Posted on 03/17/2007 3:37:49 PM PDT by blam
Benefits 'destroying family life'
By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:07am GMT 17/03/2007
Couples who pretend to live apart can gain up to £10,000 a year in benefits, according to a book published today.
The sociologist and author Patricia Morgan says the scale of the fraud is the disastrous result of Government policy which discourages couples from marrying or even cohabiting, dealing a "devastating blow" to family life.
Her book, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, says the Government paid credits and benefits to 200,000 more lone parents than actually live in Britain in 2004-5.
In extreme cases, couples can be up to £10,000 a year "better off" by lying about the status of their relationship.
The Office for National Statistics says there are 1.9 million lone parents, but the Government is paying out to around 2.1 million.
The Department for Work and Pensions said "living together fraud" cost taxpayers £66 million in 2005-2006, equivalent to hiring 2,500 police officers.
However, £66 million only takes account of benefits, such as Income Support, and not tax credits which are administered by HM Customs and Revenue. If they were included, the fraud bill could be as high as £400 million a year, the Tories say.
Mrs Morgan, a visiting fellow at the School of Humanities at Buckingham University, said: "The temptation to pretend to live alone is enormous considering the sums involved and is particularly acute when the lone parent is on out-of-work benefits or a low wage."
In some areas such as the East End of London it is accepted as a "fact of life" that people maintain separate residences to maximise benefits.
Even amicably married women and their children were declared as living separately from their husbands to ensure they got more money.
"When a couple splits up and lives apart, or pretends to, the man's income does not count against the mother's benefit entitlement," she said.
"If the man is not earning, there is still an incentive to split up, since he can then draw benefits in his own right as a non wage earner, and have his own subsidised housing. Alternatively, if the couple pretends to split up, the man can receive benefit in his own right and live rent-free in the council houses provided for her 'fatherless' children while perhaps declaring that he lives with his parents.
"If he also has a council property, this can be sublet."
Mrs Morgan said family life had been discouraged over 25 years by both Conservative and Labour governments, while "strategic single parenthood" had been encouraged.
Today's Government was particularly harsh on single-earner couples who have to earn more than £50,000 before they suffer no economic loss from coming clean about their relationship, she said.
"In the Thatcher years, the Conservative government gave lone parents special financial benefits and priority entitlement to council housing. In the Labour years, the state increasingly became the child-care provider.
"The consequences are obvious - couples are strongly encouraged not to commit to each other because, by doing so, they will lose out financially. Both Conservative and Labour governments also removed any offsetting compensation in the tax system that had previously helped two-parent families."
But penalising two-parent families had a "disastrous economic and social effect". Couples who say they are "closely involved" are 12 times more likely than married couples to split up in the first three years of a child's life.
The Department for Work and Pensions said it had reduced "living together" fraud from £93 million in 2004-2005.
"Benefits are designed to meet the needs of the people claiming them," a spokesman said. "To protect this, we press for the strongest penalties for those who falsely claim."
The Tories say £305 million was paid out in tax credits to people who claimed they were single despite having a partner in 2004-5, bringing the total fraud bill nearer to £400 million, if the £66 million were included.
• Patricia Morgan: "The War between the State and the Family: How Government Divides and Impoverishes", published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, £10.
Duh...
Basic rule of human nature.
You penalize something you get less of it.
You reward something you get more of it.
Be very careful what you penalize and reward...
Liberals just can't get that through their heads.
Who's your daddy? Big Brother is your daddy, that's who.
just like what welfare did to the Black family in the USA.
btt
Duh is right. Didn't most societies figure this out, like, decades ago?
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