A report recently published by the Marriage Foundation reveals that almost a quarter of a million people in England and Wales are pretending to live apart so that they can claim single parent benefits worth up to in excess of £7,000 per year.

One of the reasons for this fraud (other than the obvious greed and criminality) is the fact that English tax rules have created a serious imbalance so that it actually costs more for parents to stay together than apart. Couples can make money by splitting up. That is crazy and the Government needs to act, if they are truly serious about their desire to clamp down on benefits fraud.

Either they want to create a fair society where people have the incentive to work and to create a stable family environment or they don’t. Benefits fraud and tax evasion are the twin evils of modern day British economics and the law-abiding electorate are getting sick of it.

 Unless the Government delivers on its promises voters will throw their lot in with someone else who will. The trouble is, at the moment, no realistic alternative seems to be presenting itself.