Relationships Foundation, the think tank for a better connected society, is using this first day of marriage week to call for marital status to be reinserted into government data collection.
Marital status was deleted from Government forms in 2003: most officially-sponsored research now refers to ‘couple parent families’. Current forms ask the single question ‘Are you married or living with a partner [tickbox]’ failing to distinguish between marriage and cohabitation.
Not collecting data on marital status is dangerous because:
· It perpetuates the misapprehension that cohabitation gives the same rights as marriage, and runs a real risk of deceiving people.
· It is more difficult to collect high quality data and generate good research into the outcomes of different types of relationship. What gets measured gets done, and it is important to see the impact of public policy in this area.
Furthermore, government language can ‘nudge’ behaviour, and the reintroduction of marital status would send a strong message that marriage matters, at a much lower cost than a tax allowance.
Commenting, Michael Trend, Executive Director of the Foundation said:
“While we await more definitive measures, the Coalition should send a strong signal that marriage matters by reintroducing marital status to Government forms.”
“It is ridiculous that policymakers are depriving themselves of the data needed to make evidence-based decisions.
“There are many different types of families, and many work very well: but there is clear evidence that marriage is better for couples and better for children.
“The Coalition is rightly committed to reducing the pressure on families: promoting marriage is a key way of doing this.”
For further information, please contact Sam Barker, Head of Family Policy, on
07817 523 116, or s.barker@relationshipsfoundation-org.stackstaging.com
www.relationshipsfoundation.org
Notes to Editors
· The removal of marital status was first raised as an issue in Harry Benson’s 2003 article The conflation of marriage and cohabitation in government statistics – a denial of difference rendered untenable by an analysis of outcomes. He makes the point that ‘Gliding over any distinction between couple types rules out analyses based on diverse family structures which could have important policy implications’. (1)
· Work by the Centre for Social Justice, Why is the Government anti-marriage? (2) found that:
o Marriage brings stability: just one in 11 married couples split before their child’s fifth birthday compared to 1 in 3 unmarried couples. The Millennium cohort study shows that even the poorest 20% of married couples are more stable than all but the richest 20% of cohabiting couples.
o Marriage is directly linked to better mental and physical health amongst adults. The same benefits are not found amongst co-habiting couples, it is specifically a ‘Marriage Effect’.
o Marriage reduces the risk of violence and abuse. Children growing up in lone parent or broken families are between 3 and 6 times more likely to suffer serious abuse than those growing up with both biological parents, and the risk of domestic violence is significantly increased for co-habiting women than married women.
o Marriage leads to better mental health for children. Children of lone parents are more than twice as likely to suffer mental health problems than children of married couples, and those of co-habiting couples are 75 per cent more likely to have mental health problems than their peers with married parents.
o Marriage leads to better life outcomes for children. if you are not brought up in a two-parent family you are:
§ 75% more likely to fail at school
§ 70% more likely to be a drug addict
§ 50% more likely to have an alcohol problem
§ 40% more likely to have serious debt problems
§ 35% more likely to experience unemployment/welfare dependency
· Blogging for the Telegraph on Friday, Peter Oborne accused David Cameron of ‘caving in to those waging war against the family’. He makes the point:
“After the 2001 general election victory, New Labour felt confident enough to obliterate marriage from the official record. The term “marital status” suddenly ceased to appear on government forms, a seemingly innocuous move that went unnoticed at the time but has been full of consequence ever since. Thereafter, the British state no longer acknowledged the institution of marriage as being in any way different from other kinds of connection between couples.
“This move was not merely symbolic. In the past, there was a mass of evidence to show that the institution of marriage tended to produce children who were far less likely to become drug addicts, criminals, drop-outs etc. The policy implications of this were immense. Now, however, the great majority of Government research deals only with what officialdom likes to label “couple parent families” – and ministers find themselves incapable of accessing up-to-date evidence about the social consequences of marriage.” (3)
· Pledges:
o The Conservative Party election manifesto said ‘Britain’s families will get our full backing across all our policies’ (4)
o The Coalition document said ‘The Government believes that strong and stable families of all kinds are the bedrock of a strong and stable society’ (5)
o Maria Miller, then the Conservative Party’s Families spokesman, and current Families Minister, told the 2009 Party conference:
The Conservative Party unashamedly supports families, unashamedly supports marriage and this is what people aspire to and the Conservative Party have always been the party of aspiration.
”Marriage provides a sort of stable framework for our lives and, with the evidence right in front of us, it is madness not to support marriage. That is why we are committed to introducing the recognition of marriage in the tax and benefit system.” (6)
o During a speech to Barnados in June 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg revealed that David Cameron would be chairing a Childhood and Families Taskforce. This was due to report ‘around the end of 2010’ and is still awaited. (7)
· Relationships Foundation this week published their Cost of Family Breakdown Index. This found that the total cost of family breakdown to the UK was £41.74 billion in 2010-11. This is £1,364 for every taxpayer. The total cost has risen by £70million since last year. The index looks at the cost of family breakdown to five key areas of public policy: Tax and Benefits, Housing, Health and Social Care, Civil & Criminal Justice and Education & Young People not in education, employment or training.www.relationshipsfoundation.org/counting-the-cost-of-family-failure-42bn
· Marriage Week UK runs from the 7th to the 14th February (8)
· The Relationships Foundation, established in 1993, is a Cambridge-based independent think tank seeking a better connected society. It studies the effect that culture, business and government have on relationships. It proposes new ideas for strengthening social connections, campaigns on issues where relationships are being undermined, and trains and equips people to think relationally for themselves.