Until recently unmarried individuals buying a house together got 60,000 of mortgage allowable for full tax relief on interest, compared to only 30,000 for a couple. Today there are still positive financial benefits in favour of single parenting in Britain and America and the value of the British married couple allowance is being steadily eroded.
Marriage needs redefining.
It has sunk to become a minimally binding two year contract. Not surprisingly many cannot see the point. We need to recreate a definition of marriage as a long term monogamous commitment, with a particular aim of providing a place of stability for conceiving and parenting children. A step beyond that would be to encourage marriage survival by giving a significant tax benefit, not for marriage itself, but in proportion to the length of marriage which is far more important, with an additional benefit for a stable marriage with children at home. Every marriage that survives saves the government a small fortune.