The social cost of family breakdown, especially its impact on children, is nowadays widely understood, as research evidence mounts in both Britain and the US. Attempting to assess the economic cost of transitory relationships and father-absent families is a more difficult task. However, as Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation reports on her blog for the Centre for Policy Studies, four American institutes have combined to produce the first-ever US survey (over all 50 states) of the total annual cost of family break-up. They have come up with a figure of $112 billion, which they describe as a 'conservative' estimate.The intention is clear: to strengthen the case for funding marriage-support programmes and to ensure that welfare systems do not penalise couple families.
Given that UK rates of family breakdown, non-marital births and one-parent households all rival or outstrip US rates, there's no doubt that a UK audit of this kind would present some dramatic figures. The Conservatives under David Cameron have made commendably clear their commitment to removing the 'couple penalty' from the welfare system and to supporting marriage through the tax system, although they remain cautious about the means of funding both intitiatives. A UK investigation into the cost to taxpayers of family breakdown would undoubtedly make both of those commitments look remarkably good value.
