The costs – personal, social, economic – of family breakdown are vast and underappreciated. This is a social justice issue.
My article for the political website ConservativeHome …
A friend of ours is an amazing woman who has brought up her now teenage children on her own, having split from the father soon after their youngest was born.
Her children are polite, motivated, sociable, intelligent and a credit to her. With limited resources, and not much encouragement from her own family, she has struggled through. She has depended almost entirely on housing and other benefits, surviving from hand to mouth just above the poverty line. Escaping the dual poverty trap – where every pound earned meant the loss of most of a pound of tax credits and benefits – was a deliberate choice. But for her own sanity and well-being, she persevered despite earning little more. Now in a secure full-time job, she is largely free of the welfare system.
Hers is a great success story because she leaned on the state for the time she needed it before becoming independent and self-reliant on the other side.
But could a more stability-focused family policy have improved her odds of avoiding the split in the first place?
Please read the rest of my article on the three things a Number 10 Family Policy Unit could do at the website ConservativeHome