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Child Poverty Bill

I do not accept that. This is a material couple penalty. It has been found that if you move apart or if you go together, that is the loss. Let me go on and quote Frank Field, who put it so eloquently in 1999: ""Why marry a fellow—supposing an offer is there—when a benefit claim as a single parent results in more money proportionately than by marrying, particularly if the boyfriend also claims his welfare cheque, together with housing benefit, and sub-lets his flat while living with his girlfriend?"" I assure the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, that we strongly support his amendments. They are central to strategies to put the role of parenting in the central place in which it belongs for the well-being of our children.