In a speech to the relationship support charity Relate, David described a package of policies to give families support "when they need it most", including:
- The introduction of a universal health visitor service
- Adjustments in the tax system to recognise marriage
- The de-stigmatising of relationship support
David closed by saying that "we know that families, given the right support, at the right time, can make their own luck and transform their own fortunes."
Why marriage is central to policy making: a response to Harriet Harman
20 May 2008, The Centre for Social Justice
Harriet Harman made the statement that there is no ideal parenting scenario. It is this statement above all others that reveals why the government has done so much over the last ten years to undermine families and so damage the outcomes for children. Of course there is an ideal - it is firmly established in sociological research that having two parents produces the best outcomes for children. Not everyone may achieve this but that doesn’t mean you set policy to encourage all other relationships as if there were no difference.
As a result of this thinking, this Government’s policy is damaging marriage rates, especially in our most deprived communities. For example, the tax credit system penalises those couples on low incomes trying to get back to work and who have stayed together. They quickly realise that ‘officially’ living apart is a better financial option. European data has shows that by a child’s fifth birthday 8% of married couples have split up compared with 43% of cohabiting couples. As research tells us, children from broken homes are 75% more likely to fail at school and 70% more likely to take drugs.
What Harriet Harman has also failed to realise is that ultimately the government picks up the financial cost of failed adult relationships. The direct cost to the taxpayer of broken homes is £20-24bn, which equates to approximately £680-820 per taxpayer.
Therefore, claiming that marriage is irrelevant to public policy ignores the greatest cause of and hope for our most profound social problems. Ms Harman has shown how out of touch the Government is: as the Government makes it more difficult for people to marry, a MORI poll shows 68% of young people want to be married with children, compared to only 4% who want to cohabit. No wonder family policy is in such a mess.
If the Government is concerned about the future welfare of its citizens, then it needs to be concerned about marriage.
Labour: Marriage is irrelevant to public policy, says Harriet Harman
Marriage is irrelevant to government policy and ministers should not tell people how to bring up their families, says Labour's deputy leader.
"Harriet Harman, who has been accused of contributing to family breakdown by drawing up policies that benefited unmarried couples, claims in a new book that promoting marriage is not part of ministers' jobs, and they may as well just say they want everyone to be happy."
Read the Telegraph article here
Labour 'kills off marriage' as rates lowest ever
27 March 2008
Marriage rates in England and Wales have fallen to their lowest level since records began, fuelling accusations from family campaigners that Labour is "killing marriage off".
Most British babies now born outside of marriage
20 December 2007
"What has happened has done more to damage the prospects of children than at any time for more than 100 years."
You're Breaking Up Families, Gordon
25 March 2007
Labour's attempts to tackle child poverty through tax and benefits is harming the very families that it is trying to help. This is the stark conclusion of a new report published by the Institute of Economic Affairs.
The report's author, Patricia Morgan, concludes that "escalating family disintegration is being incentivised by the tax and benefit structure".
The Baby of All Battles
1 April 2007
"The debate has begun in earnest... that something is already rotten in the state of British childhood.
The subsequent political war for control, between the state and private individuals, will travel right to the heart of what a family means."
Read The Sunday Telegraph here
