Press release
The Marriage Foundation is deeply concerned at the Government’s plans that further downgrade the importance of marriage, by extending inheritance and other rights to cohabitees, while failing to do anything to promote its benefits.
Dr Harry Benson, PhD, research director of the Marriage Foundation, commented: “Has the Government learnt nothing from more than two decades of failed family policy? The government’s proposal to introduce similar rights for cohabiting couples as for married couples is both foolish and fundamentally flawed. We already have record levels of family breakdown in the UK, where nearly one in two teenagers are not living with both natural parents. These proposals will make things worse. Further diluting any differences between those who marry and those who do not dooms a further generation of couples to yet more avoidable breakdown, children to negative outcomes that they do not deserve, and leaves taxpayers picking up an estimated £64 billion bill – the cost of family breakdown. We urge the government to heed the evidence provided by our previous studies. These new government proposals will discourage commitment, increase family breakdown and its after-effects, and should be politely consigned to the long grass of oblivion.”
04 June 2026