£100bn cost of broken homes: Tory minister declares children whose parents split are NINE times more likely to commit crime

By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 7:30 AM on 4th November 2010

Hit out: Iain Duncan Smith said the collapse of marriage was behind Britain's crime figures

Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit a crime than those brought up in stable families, a senior Cabinet minister warned last night.

Iain Duncan Smith said the collapse of marriage had brought soaring crime rates, doubled the chances of living in poverty and cost the country an astonishing £100billion a year.

The Work and Pensions Secretary accused Labour of undermining marriage and family life and said the country had paid a ‘heavy price’ in deeper poverty, high crime and poor life chances for the children of families that failed to stay together.

Mr Duncan Smith’s speech to representatives of the Relate counselling charity was the strongest defence of marriage made by a major government figure in years.

It contrasts powerfully with the Whitehall line in Labour’s years which said that marriage did not matter and that it was not for government to interfere with people’s choice of how they arranged their lives.

And it signalled that Mr Duncan Smith will fight for the restoration of the privileges of marriage that were whittled away by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

The Coalition pledged to support married couples in the tax system – but any practical help for couples is on the backburner while ministers try to cut debt.

Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘It is important that we recognise the role of marriage in building a strong society, especially if we want to give children the best chance in life.

‘Sadly, the last government seemed determined to undermine marriage – for example, by removing references to it from official forms.’

He declared: ‘Evidence shows that family influences educational outcomes, job prospects, and even life expectancy.

‘When government abandons policies that support families, society can pay a heavy price.’


Citing evidence collected by ministries, police and government agencies – but rarely referred to by ministers – Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘Lone-parent families are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than two-parent families.’

Troubled: Two-thirds of young offenders come from single-parent homes (picture posed by models)

On crime, he said children from broken homes were more than twice as likely to live in poverty than two-parent families.

‘Only 30 per cent of young offenders grew up with both parents. Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to become young offenders.’

He added: ‘This is not some abstract debate. Family life affects all of us – what happens on our streets; in our communities; and in our economy. What you learn from a very early age has a great deal to say about the person you will eventually become and the life you lead.’

Mr Duncan Smith said no-one’s life was determined by their family circumstances and many people overcame early difficulties to achieve great things.

But he added: ‘We would be foolish to ignore the weight of evidence which shows just how influential family life can be to life outcomes.

‘That was one of the problems with the last government’s approach. They treated children in isolation from the family that reared them, chasing the child but ignoring the family structure.’

He quoted figures from different sources putting the cost to the country of family breakdown at between £20billion and £40billion a year.

‘The costs to society as a whole through social breakdown, addiction, crime, lost productivity and tax revenues are very difficult to quantify – but research suggests they could be up to £100billion,’ Mr Duncan Smith said.

No laughing matter: Gordon Brown, pictured meeting young offenders, was responsible for abolishing the married couple's tax allowance

That is roughly the same as the cost of the NHS.

He promised that the Coalition would support ‘committed, stable relationships with two parents that produce the best outcomes for adults and children’.

There would be ‘unapologetic support for marriage, recognising that this provides a sound basis for the majority of long-term relationships’.

Mr Duncan Smith said there would be help for organisations such as Relate to provide ‘proper support for families under stress to minimise the risk of family breakdown.’

The speech reverses Labour’s policies set out shortly after Mr Blair’s 1997 election victory which said that all kind of families, no matter whether two birth parents were involved, were as good as each other.

Mr Brown abolished the last tax break for married couples, the Married Couples Allowance, while Chancellor.

In 2003, the Daily Mail revealed that ministers had ordered the word marriage to be dropped from all official documents because it implied ‘presumption of someone’s sexual orientation’.

Even Mr Duncan Smith’s phrase ‘broken homes’ was banished as ministers and officials preferred to use such wording as ‘reformed families’.

After the speech in Daventry, Northamptonshire, charity chief Claire Tyler said: ‘To hear Iain Duncan Smith talk about the realities of married and family life is a welcome reminder that this Government is taking relationships seriously.’


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