1/ Currently almost two thirds of the children in poverty are reliant on a benefit. Those children tend to be in chronic poverty. Children in households with income from work tend to move out of poverty.
2/ Of the children dependent on welfare almost three quarters rely on a sole parent benefit.
3/ Ex-nuptial births account for almost a half of all births today.
The graph below shows the rapid rise in ex-nuptial births with no resident father, from approximately 2,500 in 1973 to 14,000 by 1996 - a quarter of all births that year.
The pattern has persisted. These births produce the children that dominate the child poverty statistics.
3 comments:
There have been two contributing factors at work here. The first being changing social attitudes to sex and marriage starting in the late 1960’s, and the second being the introduction of entitlement solo parent welfare in the early 1970’s.
Dependent children have always paid the price for their parent’s choices – no amount of Government legislation can change that, however we can change the financial incentives that foster parental irresponsibility.
ha.. the thousand year old two step guide to wealth and stability:
1. Get married
2. Stay married
JC
Reliable contraception also became available at about the same time.
Claudia Goldin has shown that this led to a state by state explosion in female investment in long duration professional education investments and graduate degrees in the USA as each state liberalise the laws.
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