ABSTRACT
The possibility of a connection between subsidies and family fragmentation is often dismissed because the sharpest increase in out-of-wedlock births and lone parenthood was in the times and aftermath of the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, who, we are repeatedly told, decimated the welfare system. The years 1979 to 1992 were also the times when benefit dependency dramatically increased, the number of working lone parents declined, and lone parenthood became a mass phenomeno. It is commitment which changes how men see themselves and how they behave. Only upon marriage does a man publicly assume the responsibilities associated with any consequent parenthood. Cohabiting couples often do not share their income and expect each other to be self-supporting. The reality is that many fiscal changes at that time and since explicitly favoured two-earner households and single-parent households while making living as a couple with children relatively expensive particularly when they had one income.
