Dubai: The UK's benefits system has been widely criticised for being too generous, has been open to abuse and is perceived as having too many loopholes.
With social change came the lack of a necessity for couples to marry. Co-habitation is common, and couples often have a family without being married. Some Britons have therefore claimed benefits, such as single-parent benefits, while hiding the fact that their partner lives with them and contributes to their income.
In addition, low-skilled workers - and those with families to care for - can sometimes end up claiming more money from the state than they could earn if they were working (particularly as childcare in the UK is expensive).
The UK has subsequently been labelled a "nanny-state".
In 2008, the rate of marriage in England and Wales fell to its lowest level since records began, in 1862, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). A total of 232,990 couples were married in 2008, which was also the lowest total since 1895.
While in 1862 50 in every 1,000 (unmarried) women got married per year, in 2008 it was 19.6 per 1,000.
On the other hand, divorces peaked to their highest ever rate in 1993 (180,523), while by 2008 the rate fell for the fourth consecutive year (136,026). That's close to half of all marriages ending in divorce.
Benefits are available for married couples, those with children, single-parent families, the disabled, elderly and infirm and job seekers.
Changing designations
The designation of these benefits and amounts have varied to a great extent over past decades, with the reinvention of some under the new Labour government.
Money for the jobless, for example, the dole, was changed into "job-seekers allowance", where claimants had to prove that they were actively seeking work to claim the funds.
A social phenomenon that has been linked on the benefits system, is the rate of teenage pregnancy - still one of the highest throughout Europe.
Aside from criticisms that sex education is still lacking in schools, council houses are provided for single-parent families.
Thus teenage girls sometimes find having a child and a council house and paying benefits, a more attractive option than further study or taking on a profession.
The social services system has also been widely criticised in the media, after a number of high-profile child abuse cases, where the services had been in contact with the families but were perceived as failing to take enough action to prevent child deaths. The highly covered case of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter dominated the media extensively, with outlets calling on social services to improve its system after the two young children died at the hands of abusive parents.
The service has since said that it is held back by different constraints, including not being able to force access to a house where child abuse is suspected.
With the elderly living longer in the UK, many pensioners find themselves unable to care for themselves in their own homes at a certain age.
While home help is available and meal schemes bring food to homes, a large percentage of the old and infirm are faced with a choice. They can either stay in their own homes and pay for home care, or sell their houses to pay for residence in a care or nursing home.
Focus on family: What the parties say
Conservatives
• Recognise marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system
• Get people off benefits and into work
• Reassess all current claimants of Incapacity Benefit.
• Those found fit for work will be transferred onto Jobseeker's Allowance.
• Eliminate child poverty by 2020
• Long-term benefit claimants who fail to find work will be required to ‘work for the dole' on community work programmes.
• Anyone on Jobseeker's Allowance who refuses to join the Work Programme will lose the right to claim out-of-work benefits until they do
• People who refuse to accept reasonable job offers could forfeit their benefits for up to three years.
• Support families in the tax and benefits system
• Extend flexible working and improve parental leave
• Target help to disadvantaged and dysfunctional families
Labour
• ‘Father's Month' of flexible paid leave.
• •New Toddler Tax Credit of £4 a week from 2012 to give more support to all parents of young children - whether they want to stay at home or work.
• The right to request flexible working for older workers, with an end to default retirement at 65
• New National Care Service to ensure free care in the home for those with the greatest care needs and a cap on the costs of residential care so that everyone's homes and savings are protected from care charges after two years in a care home.
• Re-establish link between the Basic State Pension and earnings from 2012; and help for 10 million people to build up savings through new Personal Pension Accounts.
• Reform of the laws concerning marriage to Roman Catholics and the primacy of male members of the Royal family
• 200,000 jobs through the Future Jobs Fund, with a job or training place for young people who are out of work for six months, but benefits cut at 10 months if they refuse to take part; and anyone unemployed for more than two years' guaranteed work, but no option of life on benefits
• Better Off in Work guarantee: together the National Minimum Wage and tax credits should always make work pay.
• Reform how Job Centre Plus helps lone parents: providing extra help with childcare, training and support to find family-friendly work, while requiring those with children aged three to take steps to prepare for work and actively to seek employment once their youngest child is seven
• End child poverty by 2020, building on the 2010 Child Poverty Act.
• Create a National Care Service for the elderly
Liberal Democrats
• Establish independent commission, with cross-party support, to develop proposals for long-term care of the elderly.
• £700 in the pockets of millions of low and middle-income earners
• Aallow mums and dads to share parental leave between them
• Better support for children at risk
• Restore the earnings link for pensions
• Incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into UK law,
• End the detention of children for immigration purposes.
• Enhance child protection. Enforce the publication of an anonymised version of Serious Case Reviews
• 70 per cent reduction in child maltreatment by 2030, promoted by the WAVE trust.
• Protect children and young people from developing negative body images by regulating airbrushing in adverts.
• Maintain the commitment to end child poverty in the UK by 2020.
Source: Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat 2010 Manifestos.
