PRESS RELEASE - Traditional families with one stay at home parent have suffered a sharp decline in living standards according to a new report.

‘Households Below a Minimum Income Standard’, the latest publication from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, shows the percentage of one-earner families with children falling below the Minimum Income Standard in 2012/13 increased significantly to 51 per cent – up 13 per cent since 2008/09.

This means more than half are falling below the income level the public deem to be adequate.

The figures also reveal that since 2010, families with children have seen the largest increase in the percentage unable to afford the minimum acceptable living standard.

Leading public affairs charity CARE has said the latest figures are partly a consequence of one-earner families being unfairly treated in the tax system.

Although the Conservative-led coalition announced a £200 transferable allowance in the 2013 budget, this falls considerably short of the fully transferable allowance CARE has campaigned for.

CARE’s Director of Parliamentary Affairs Dan Boucher said:

“Stay at home parents simply should not feel they are being forced to make a choice between caring for their children and earning enough to properly provide for the family.

“These alarming figures are cause for real concern and only strengthen the argument for a fully transferable tax allowance for all one-earner married couples with children.

“While the Government took a step in the right direction by introducing a small transferable allowance for married couples with children clearly we want them to go much further.

“It is disgraceful that at present traditional one-earner families with children are facing this squeeze on income.

“Sadly it’s an inevitable consequence of a tax system that does not recognise the family as it should do.

“A fully transferable allowance for all one-earner married couples with children would go a considerable way towards easing some of the pressure on one-earner families and mean there is flexibility so they do not feel penalised just because one parent stays at home.”

Notes:

The report can be read here.

CARE has previously published detailed papers showing why the current tax system unfairly penalises single earner families.