A new report released by the Marriage Foundation has called for urgent policy changes by the government to address what it describes as a "calamitous" marriage gap of 51 per cent between wealthy and low-income couples.
The report underscores the drastic decline in marriage rates among low-income couples. Since 1972, marriage rates have dropped by 78 per cent among men and 73 per cent among women.
Marriage remains common among wealthier families, widening the divide between socio-economic groups.
“What has been almost completely overlooked and ignored in discussion of the trend away from marriage … is the presence of a marriage gap between rich and poor,” the report states.
“Quite simply, marriage is still the norm among the richest families [but] is increasingly the exception among the poorest families.”
According to data first documented by the think tank in 2015, 87% of parents with children under five in the highest income quintile were married, in contrast to just 24% in the lowest income quintile.
The report, using figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), reveals that this gap has significantly broadened over the past decade, partly due to economic pressures and social disruptions caused by COVID-19 restrictions.
By 2022, the marriage gap continued to expand, with 71% of newborns in high-earning families having married parents, compared to only 35% of newborns in low-earning families being born to married parents.
The report placed the blame on successive governments for failing to support young couples who want to marry by considering the link between marriage and greater financial security, better child development outcomes, and reduced reliance on welfare support.
It pointed to flaws in the welfare system, particularly the “couple penalty”, which it identifies as the “biggest barrier to marriage among the poorest, a social justice problem whose existence is barely acknowledged by politicians.”
The Marriage Foundation is a think tank founded by High Court judge, Sir Paul Coleridge, to promote marriage and reduce the number of people – around 500,000 annually – entangled in the family justice system.
Marriage Foundation’s Research Director, Harry Benson, remarked that the marriage gap is “calamitous” for the children of low-income couples and “more broadly for society which must pick up the pieces of family breakdown”.
“Marriage acts as a buffer to poverty, while children who grow up with both parents in the household, do better at school and generally have better mental health,” he stated.
Ahead of the Spring Statement, one of the primary recommendations of the report is to discard the current “paltry” £250 married couples’ allowance and redirect the funds to provide a £3,000 taxable child benefit for married mothers with a first child under three.
Additionally, the report calls for a review of tax and benefits policies that currently penalise couples who marry or live together, arguing that these policies discourage marriage among the poorest families and lead to family breakdown.
It also urges senior politicians to publicly support marriage, saying that “the deafening silence on marriage is strange given how very important marriage is for so many politicians in their own private lives”.
Sir Paul accused politicians of ignoring the issue out of fear of being seen as judgmental.
“All political parties stand accused of failing to grasp the nettle when it comes to advocating for marriage and its benefits. So far as increasing family stability is concerned, they are well known and uncontroversial,” he commented.
“If any party wants to be taken seriously when it comes to confronting the scourge of family breakdown and its fall out, they must be unequivocal about publicly supporting marriage and making it easier for the less well-off to tie the knot. It is not easy, but it is essential.”
Similarly, Benson stated, “There are some people, who prophesied that marriage as an institution is finished, that it doesn’t matter and wrongly claim that this is evidenced by the UK’s declining marriage rate … The real scandal here is that support for marriage remains consistent among all income groups and the vast majority (nearly 9 in 10) of young people aspire to marry, but just one in five of the very poorest couples will ever tie the knot.
“This has got to change; it’s a question of social justice and why we urge the Chancellor to take immediate and meaningful action to help mitigate the pernicious effects of the couple penalty so that more couples can enjoy the benefits of marriage.”
