Give couples financial incentive to marry, charity tells ministers

THE Government has been urged to introduce policies including financial incentives to help reverse the decline in marriage in the UK.

With the number of marriages at an all-time low, the Government should encourage couples to wed, a report by the charity Marriage Foundation has suggested.

Hungary, which has implemented such policies, is an example of how effective this can be, the report argues.

Marriage rates there increased by 3 per cent during 2020, the first year of lockdown, whereas other countries across Europe saw steep declines.

Harry Benson, research director at the Marriage Foundation, said the findings were “nothing short of a miracle” and proved that the “right policies and financial incentives” could reverse a decline in weddings. He added that the UK’s lack of such policies was why a “marriage gap” had opened up between the richest and poorest couples.

“Just a third of … semi-skilled workers and fewer than four in 10 casual labourers get married,” said Mr Benson. This compares with over three-quarters of those in higher managerial jobs.”

In Hungary, married couples can get £28,000 to go towards a property if they pledge to have three children in the future, as well as a further £40,000 residential loan.

In the UK, figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in May revealed that marriages in places of worship hit an all-time low in 2019.

The ONS has also recently published figures showing more babies have been born to unmarried couples than couples who have tied the knot for the first time since records began in 1845.

The report notes that Viktor Orban’s populist Hungarian government has drawn criticism for its policies on immigration and same-sex marriage.

Sir Paul Coleridge, founder of the Marriage Foundation, said declining marriage rates across Europe revealed a “lazy and defeatist approach”. “No one is suggesting that Hungarian social policies should be adopted wholesale (indeed some are unacceptable),” he said. “However, what the research demonstrates is that if Government backs marriage and supports this attitude with proper financial incentives, the downward trend can be, and is likely to be, reversed.”