Saturday, March 07, 2009

Government pays couples to divorce

Briefing. Yet another study on the 'marriage penalty' imposed by the tax and benefits system.

From The Telegraph, in part: In the latest report, published in the latest issue of the Economic Journal, researchers at the University of Essex analysed data from 3,235 couples taken from the British Household Panel Survey between 1991 and 2002.
They found that the introduction of Working Families Tax Credit in 1999 made it easier for mothers to boost their income through work, because it allowed them to claim back 70 per cent of their child care costs.

But the system - which was reformed again in 2003 - also made divorce an "attractive 'outside option'" to women whose husbands were unemployed or worked less than 16 hours a week on low pay. This is because they would be more likely to qualify for the benefits if they were single.

They claim mothers in poor households were more than 2 percentage points more likely to get divorced than childless women after the reforms, "representing an increase of almost 160 per cent with respect to the pre-reform period".

See the full article.

No comments:

Pope Leo XIII's Prayer to St Michael

Holy Michael, Archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust down to Hell Satan, and all wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen