ECONOMICS

FAMILY FUNDS AND PUBLIC SUPPORT

Professor Andrew Tettenborn, Law Dept., University of Exeter, on 22 February 2001

With a General Election expected within a few weeks, the speaker, who is a prospective parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party in Bath, noted that the subject of support for `the family' had been the theme of numerous speeches and press articles. How tax changes could help parents and children was at the centre of political argument, linked with the changes that had occurred in attitudes towards conventional marriage over the course of a generation.

The main political parties had both reduced the married couples allowance and Labour had finally abolished it. Now, the Conservatives had a policy that would allow married couples with one of them not working to transfer the individual tax allowance (of £4385) to the earning spouse if children were being looked after by the other person. The Labour party appeared to favour fiscal breaks for low income families, encouraging both parents to work, and encouraging single mothers to take jobs.

A separate, but linked, issue was the increasing concern at the growing lawlessness and anti-social behaviour of some teen-age children, most marked where children had been brought up by a single parent or a parent and step-parent.

The meeting recognised that they held views on marriage and parenting that would not be so widely held by younger voters, but, on balance, there was support for ensuring that a family with a parent at home looking after young children should not be disadvantaged financially. Did the economy of the country need a high proportion of mothers to work in order to sustain economic growth? The meeting did no think so. However, to maintain standards in public services where mothers had scarce skills, there was a case for encouraging them to resume paid employment. A further aspect of the social dilemma was the growing number of young women going into higher education. How could this investment in advanced education, and its gains, be sustained whilst young children were being brought up?

The meeting agreed with the comment "sensible politicians on all sides are cautious of claiming to be able to change social behaviour". which had appeared in The Times that morning.

A further related political issue was the possible change in the law increasing the rights of both parents to a period of parental leave on the arrival of a child. Members attending took away copies of a Green Paper, a consultation document, where opinions were sought from the public and from employers on who might pay, and the effect on small firms. Members of the Government had already expressed their views, and it was assumed these views would prevail.

Rodney Tye