Financial stress 'harmful to family relationships'

Monday, February 8 2010

A policy adviser from the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) has called on the government to do more to support vulnerable families as financial stress can cause relationships to suffer.

Carena Rogers commented that unclaimed benefits is one problem with the current system.

"We would like to see the government supporting families by putting as much effort into ensuring the most vulnerable get their unclaimed £16 billion worth of benefits as they do into chasing benefit fraud, which costs a mere £900 million a year," she said.

Ms Rogers added that the FPI would also welcome increased advisory services provided by job centre staff - including following up on claims to check if they have been received and providing people with information about what benefits they are entitled to.

Figures published by the Citizens Advice Bureau on February 3rd show that an estimated 1.2 billion households miss out on tax credits for low paid workers without children, adding up to a combined £1.9 billion.

The research also indicated that council tax benefit and pension credit are two other benefits demonstrating signs of so-called under-claiming.