David Cameron has reneged on his promise to support marriage and tackle family breakdown, 
and instead unfairly penalised middle-class parents, a leading UK think-tank has said.
Mr Cameron made backing marriage a centrepiece of his stance as the Leader of the Opposition, promising to make Britain “the most family-friendly country in Europe”.
However, an audit [1] by the Centre for Social Justice, set up by Mr Cameron’s Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said since he became Prime Minister, little had been done to support marriage. It strongly criticises plans to cut child benefit for middle-class parents.
Marking the Coalition’s performance on family policy at just two out of 10, the centre concluded that the deal with the Liberal Democrats had seen family-friendly plans being watered down.
“Compromise to avoid difficult family policy decisions means it’s just business as usual,” the report said. The Coalition’s family policy was “a disappointing continuation of the last government’s failed approach”.
Gavin Poole, the centre’s chief executive, accused the Coalition of “compromise-driven inaction in tackling our devastating culture of family breakdown”.
The criticism will increase the pressure on the Prime Minister to enact more traditional “family values” policies. Mr Cameron fought last year’s election on a promise to introduce a transferable tax allowance for four million married couples worth £150 a year.
The centre said that transferable allowances “could make a genuine difference”, but despite its popularity among Tories, the policy had “moved off radar”.
The centre was set up by Mr Duncan Smith in 2004. He remains its patron, but is not involved in its day-to-day work. In opposition, its research on family breakdown and welfare dependency informed Conservative social policies and led to Mr Cameron’s warnings about Britain’s “broken society.”
According to the report, the Government has failed to invest in preventing family breakdown, instead concentrating its resources on tackling the aftermath.
Much of the Government’s emphasis “is dominated by efforts to pick up the pieces after relationships have broken down”, it says.
The report notes: “A miserly £7.5 million has been allocated to relationship education, and less than half of this money focuses on preventing breakdown. Most is going on the status quo: family support services (online and over the phone) and crisis counselling. Undoubtedly this will help some families, but nothing has markedly changed in the Government’s approach to preventing family breakdown.”
The think tank’s “Report Card” for the Coalition also criticised the “unfortunate and unfair” decision to withdraw child benefit from higher-rate taxpayers.
The benefit will be taken away from a single-income couple earning more than £42,475 but retained by a couple where both parents work and earn £40,000 each, prompting allegations that ministers were penalising mothers who stay at home to care for their children.
The criticism will add to pressure on ministers to make changes to the Child Benefit plan, which will take effect in 2013.
The report was more positive about Mr Duncan Smith’s work to reform the benefits system, giving his plans to increase incentives to work eight out of 10.
However, some of the strongest criticism was reserved for a policy conceived to please right-wingers, the planned cap on benefits claims.
Under the new rules, no household will be able to claim more than £500 a week, regardless of how many members the family has.
The centre warned it could bring hardship to thousands of large families “who will have the rug pulled from under them overnight”.
The Department for Work and Pensions said around 50,000 households would be affected, losing an average of £93 a week. However, some could lose as much as £150 a week. The centre said the move was “likely to be devastating” for some families.