AIBU to think the govt should do more to help/support single people?

[windygallows]

Increasingly I've become more aware of how how single people really struggle in a society geared towards couples. Not only is it pretty hard to get by financially or even to afford a house as a house as a single person, but aside from a small council tax rebate there is absolutely no tax relief or support given by the government. One person paying all bills in a system which 'assumes' and sets couple-dom as the standard.

Surely the govt could intervene by, for instance, setting a different/reduced tax code for those who are single than those in domestic partnerships/couples. Being single is usually out of people's control, often down to fate, and shouldn't be penalized.

I've been single for the majority of my life and vividly recall how much better off I was in the 10 years I was with ex-DP; it was a marked difference. I've seen accomplished, but solo, friends struggle. I certainly don't want to hope and pray that my DCs meet someone just to ensure they have a good quality of life and, as a society, it sends a pretty rubbish message that being independent means that you're likely to have a reduced standard of income.

brasty - because people have better life outcomes in two adult households.

Women who choose to be single are consistently the happiest group of people. Married women have poorer health and lower happiness than women who are single by choice.
Outcomes are better for men.

Married woman actually have better health than single women.

Bobo - I don't understand your point?

Are you talking about children in your post about better life outcomes as I can't see how a single person living with another single person (so hitting your magic two adult household) is suddenly going to transform their life?

I find it funny that there are now quite a few pages of people saying how tough single people have it. Quite frankly I think being single or not is irrelevant. The criteria for 'help' should be around supporting the vulnerable. Children are extremely expensive and parents NEED help to afford them. The disabled and elderly NEED help to survive because they can't go out and work. Everyone else, sorry you do not NEED help as much as the other categories. Sharing a home isn't great but if you don't like it get a second job or go after a promotion to earn more so you can afford to live on your own.

I was once single. I bought my first home by working 3 jobs and once I bought the place rented a room out. This was accomplished on a single persons income. If you have siblings, why not buy a place together and split the cost of the mortgage? There are solutions to the problems mentioned on this thread that single people have that other more vulnerable groups do not have as options.

DEFINITELY YANBU OP!!!!!!

It's time single people were noticed and catered for.

There should be only 2-3 burger buns in a pack for single people because they are unlikely to eat 6. Same goes for hot dog buns! Fucking disgrace!

totally agree. Same as for going on holiday and single people room supplement. WTF

"council tax should be per person "? Guessing you are too young to remember the poll tax which brought down Margaret Thatcher

I've never quite understood the single person discount on council tax. I'm a SAHM while oh works so we only have one wage yet get no discount on the council tax whereas if I was a single working mum I would have the discount and wage.

That's because you are choosing to be a SAHM. A single person can't split themselves in half! As it is they are still paying for half a non existent person.

not read the full thread but
the main disadvantage I see for singletons compared to couples or families (single parents or otherwise) lies in the tax system. Each person gets a personal allowance (currently £11k I think) so a single person is taxed on any income above that immediately. A couple have 2 personal allowances (total tax-free income allowed is £22K) before they are taxed. Couples can shift money around to minimise their tax burden.
Also to add many of us have not CHOSEN to be single it is often thrust upon us through widowhood, divorce or other factors.
Not sure there is a solution though - except to grin and bear it

Google or Wikipedia "Poll tax" and find out the dreadfulness that was council tax per person. Riots and all sorts. It was such a shit policy it brought down Margaret Thatcher. And that took some doing.
That's why there is a single person discount. Council tax is per household because trying it per person was a catastrophe.

It was a catastrophe because it impacted on couples. Single people don't riot. Too busy with the wild parties :)

Not only is it pretty hard to get by financially or even to afford a house as a house as a single person, but aside from a small council tax rebate there is absolutely no tax relief or support given by the government. One person paying all bills in a system which 'assumes' and sets couple-dom as the standard

Indeed.

And if you remember when they removed the 10p tax rate, thus shifting a whole load of people into a higher tax bracket. But, said the cHancellor, people will be compensated as we'll make sure Child Tax credits, & Working Tax credits compensate.

But not for single, childless people on the NMW, who were immediately shoved into poverty. It was assumed that they would live with parents or flatshare. I remember the Chancellor at the time was quite explicit about not being bothered about single workers, who can be amongst the poorest. And who have to buy in services & support which in a couple, come as part of the relationship (one would hope, anyway). It was as if being single means one is undeserving, so awful not being able to secure a committed relationship, and therefore not worthy of care by the State either.

[sigh] I'm now used to paying for everyone else. I'm lucky that I earn enough so that I can. But it is VERY galling at election time to have one's "hard working" life belittled and ignored. I'm not a "hard working family" and a la Andrea Loathsome, what do I know anyway. I haven't had children so have no stake in the country or its future.

Bollocks to that.

I was a single adult poll tax payer at the time.
The government is not responsible for single room supplement charges and all that annoying stuff.

The Poll Tax also strongly impacted on families with adult DCs who had to pay full whack even if in low paid work or apprenticeships or similar.

I was either just too young or still in full time education so wasn't effected, but I remember for DPs family both he and BIL had to pay, as well as FIL and MIL and they were a low income family.

They faced a huge increase going from paying not much in rates in a low value HA property to the full Poll Tax for 4 adults. I think both DP and his brother got into quite a lot of trouble over it because their parents couldn't or wouldn't pay and they didn't sort it out, being disorganised young men, earning little.

The single people I know lived with their parents well into their thirties, saving up a healthy deposit for a 3 bed house. Heaven.

My parents were dead long before my thirties. So were DHs.

Great post Goatsfeet I find it particularly irksome that the govt now refers to JAM Families. Not even just JAMs, but JAM families, as if the only people 'in a jam' are nuclear families. As if single people aren't at all struggling.

Round here they named all the non payers in the local paper. There was pages and pages of lists of names.

Some slipped through the net though.

I pay the same pension contribution as a married/cohabiting person. If they die, their partner gets a survivor's pension. When I die, my estate gets nothing. Likewise, we were offered a medical insurance scheme where "partners and children are covered for free". Single people are cross-subsidising couples, who have a greater joint income anyway, is so many ways.

Bobochic Single by choice women have better health than married women.

Single people are cross-subsidising couples, who have a greater joint income anyway, is so many ways

Absolutely. I asked my profession-based (and compulsory) superannuation organisation about this and received no answer - not even an acknowledgement of my request that they tell me why they were NOT discriminating against me on the grounds of my marital status (ie not).

But you know, the response in most people's minds - although they'd never say it out loud - I think is that we're all bitter and single-for-a-reason.

I think this is what really cuts for me: the society-based view that singleness is a matter of personal failure on the part of the singleton. I was once told by a Greens campaigner that "people like you" (ie single & living in a full-size house) are the cause of a) global warming; and b) the housing shortage. I don't think he even realised just how offensive he was being.

I never thought much of the Greens after that, and then their "non-men" description of women just cemented the view that they're a lot of sexist arses. And ideals-wise, I'd usually be a Green Party voter.

Goats I once got stopped by a Greenpeace chugger who I wiped the floor with when I got them to tell me they had 3 kids, all of whom will pollute far more than me, single and childfree, would ever do, so until Greenpeace did more about controlling population there were other charities I would support.

OP, YANBU