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Couples should be encouraged to marry, says Iain Duncan Smith
Young couples are being actively discouraged from marrying and ministers should start championing families rather than celebrity culture, a leading Cabinet minister will say today.
In what is the Coalition's clearest pro-marriage intervention since it was formed, Iain Duncan Smith will say that it is "absurd and damaging" for ministers not to extol the benefits of marriage for fear of stigmatising those who choose not to marry.
The Work and Pensions Secretary will argue that the current system of benefits is "crazy" because it stifles people's genuine aspirations to build and commit to a strong family. He believes marriage has become the preserve of the better off.
Mr Duncan Smith will say: "We do a disservice to society if we ignore the evidence which shows that stable families tend to be associated with better outcomes for children."
He will add: "There are few more powerful tools for promoting stability than the institution of marriage."
Mr Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader, has embarked on a radical overhaul of the benefits system and he warns that the Government needs to understand better the costs of family breakdown. In a speech as part of Marriage Week UK, he will say: "Over the years the political establishment has frowned if a mainstream politician mentions marriage.
''The prevailing view was that to extol the virtues of this most fundamental institution somehow meant that you were going to stigmatise those who were not married.
"This is an absurd and damaging assumption. Government must understand the effect that family breakdown can have on the well-being of both adults and children.
"The financial costs of family breakdown are incredibly high. But what is most painful to see is the human cost – the wasted potential, the anti-social behaviour, and the low self-esteem.” Mr Duncan Smith’s comments will be welcomed by many Tory supporters and MPs who are still waiting for David Cameron to show any sign that he will make good his promise to recognise marriage in the tax system.
The Work and Pensions Secretary will point to surveys of young people showing they aspire to marriage but often find it financially difficult.
He will add: “We have to ask ourselves: if people from the youngest age aspire to make such a commitment in their lives, what stops them doing so?”
Mr Duncan Smith warns that those on low incomes are often encouraged to stay single or live together but not commit to marriage, because of the benefits they will lose if they marry.
Research by the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank founded by Mr Duncan Smith, shows that a majority of people who are out of work or in part-time work think low-earning and unemployed people are better off living apart than as a couple.
The minister will add: “Government cannot and should not try to lecture people or push them on this matter, but it is quite legitimate to ensure people have the opportunity to achieve their aspirations.”
Mr Duncan Smith will also criticise the “celebrity focused media”, where film stars, professional footballers and television soap stars are given awards but fail to identify marriage as a good thing.
He will say: “Fashionably dismissed or taken for granted, the commitment of two people to put selfish interest to one side for the sake of each other and the children they raise is simply the very best of us as human beings.
“Furthermore, marriage is perhaps the best antidote to the celebrity, self-obsessed culture we live in, for it is about understanding that our true value is lastingly expressed through the lives of others we commit to.”