Murray (1984): Lone parenthood, the welfare state and poverty
- Growth of lone-parent families is as a result from an over-generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children
- 'Perverse incentive' = it rewards irresponsible behaviour, such as having children without being able to provide for them
- 'Dependency culture' = people assume that the state will support them and their children
- Solution to the dependency culture is to abolish the welfare benfits
- Lone-parent families are likely to be in poverty, reasons for this include:
- lack of affordable childcare prevents lone parents from working; 60% of them are unemployed
- inadequate welfare benefits
- most lone parents are women, who genrally earn less than men
- failure of fathers to pay maintenance, especially if they have formed a second family that they have to support