The Sunday Express reported the following on 17/10/2008:
Almost 40 per cent of British children are not living with married parents by the time they start school.
The high teenage pregnancy rate is being blamed for the growing number brought up by single mothers. Just 63 per cent of youngsters are in “traditional” family groups at the age of five, according to a study of 15,000 youngsters born in the first two years of the millennium. That means 37 per cent are not living with a married mother and father at home together.
The research also found the proportion residing with both parents – whether married or not – had fallen from 86 per cent to 77 per cent since they were first surveyed at nine months old.
Most of this decline was due to a sharp fall in those living with cohabiting mothers and fathers – down from 24 per cent then to 14 per cent. The number of children being brought up by single mothers rose from 14 to 17 per cent in the same period.
Critics of the decline of the two-parent family called for Labour to re-think its disdain of marriage. Research has shown that youngsters born outside wedlock face a higher risk of failing at school, suffering poor health and of going on to face problems with unemployment, drugs and crime.
Jill Kirby, of the centre-right think-tank Centre for Policy Studies, said: “These figures show that the expectation that marriage will precede childbirth is disappearing from British life. It is a matter of great concern,” she said, adding that there was urgent need to change the welfare system to make marriage a more attractive option. Study author Professor Shirley Dex, of the University of London’s Institute of Education, said: “These findings provide justification for policies to improve alternatives to early motherhood for the least educated young women. They also imply that young single mothers, who are still least likely to be employed, may benefit from further targeted support from government.”
Government figures have shown that children who live with both parents improve their GCSE performance almost twice as fast as classmates living with just their mothers.
Critics say the benefits system penalises couples with children for staying together. A low-income couple could be up to £100 a week better off if they lived apart. The Tories have urged ministers to end this “couples’ penalty”, and there have been calls from the Liberal Democrats for the Government to do more to help disadvantaged families.
