Parents' Forum

Has anyone been following the whole saga about will the Tories give married couple tax breaks? In one way I don’t get the whole thing. Presumably what it means is that tax breaks apply to a situation whereby one of the spouses goes to work and the other one stays at home; so the working spouse can get the additional tax free allowance of the stay at home spouse.

I’m not against this- the families I know that have one of the spouse’s stay at home and not earn could do with a little bit of extra cash. So fair enough-I guess it would show that the tories believe that that is the ideal model-a married couple, one of whom stays at home. But in reality is this going to change any social behaviour? If you are both earning as married or unmarried parents the tax break is not an incentive to get married or stay at home. And if you are the feckless poor a tax break that would result in £900 pa in your pocket wouldn’t cover the cost of the registry fee and a few drinks down the pub to celebrate the wedding day!