Tax & Marriage

Whilst I find any tax-cutting proposals laudible in their aims I can't help but feel that placing the emphasis on marriage is a clumsy blunt instrument. Large sections of the population must surely feel the same.

I was married once and I really didn't like it. It wasn't the institution of marriage I didn't like; in fact the sense of family that I got from it was hugely rewarding. I didn't like it because we were the original "couple at war". That is not a healthy enironment to live in and is definitely a bad example to set your children. No amount of tax breaks would have kept us together.

What I have now, whilst being far from perfect, is so much better. We're not married but feel like we are. We chose not to marry for very good reasons that I won't go into here. And yet the tax & benefits system currently in place means we'd be far better off apart.

There are countless families like ours throughout the country and many, I'm sure, feel a little alienated when marriage as an institution is championed to the exclusion of all other relationships.

As a couple we're under alot of pressure at the moment, largely due to my shoulder injury forcing me out of work. We are trying really hard to stay together. Where are the tax proposals for us? We can't be the only ones. I'm pretty sure anyone in a Civil Partnership has similar issues.

Helping families stay together wherever possible has been proven to have a positive effect on Society, starting with children doing better at school & staying out of trouble. It's no magic elixir but it certainly helps. I can see where the Conservatives are coming from on marriage but the emphasis is wrong.

Come on, Mr. Cameron. Let's see a change of emphasis away from marriage and towards family.