Outline and explain two social policies or laws that have been designed to support the traditional nuclear family (10)

A social policy that was designed to protect the traditional nuclear family was carried out by the coalition government. They changed child benefits so that families which only have one parents with a taxable income of more than £50,000 will lose some benefits and any benefits will be withdrawn entirely if one parent earns above £60,000. However, the coalition government was heavily criticised by feminists who claimed that their family policy hit women hardest, resulting in greater hardship for women and children in many cases. Women are usually the ones who look after the children, combined with their earning less, has resulted in it making lives harder for single mothers. Marxists would argue that the coalition government has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, through cutting back benefits which has a negative effect on the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society. A second social policy which was designed to protect the traditional nuclear family was the New Right policy of Child Support Agencies. The Child Support Agencies were established in 1993 and were designed to oversee the maintenance of absent fathers to mothers looking after children. This policy encouraged the traditional nuclear family because it could be viewed as penalising those who do not stay together in a traditional nuclear family. Conservatives view it as upholding moral values and saving taxpayers money. Although the New Right has a more balanced approach to families than their policies would suggest, the New Right government were criticised for ‘blaming the victim’, which is in other words blaming single-parent families, which are in fact headed by working parents who do not rely on benefits as their main source of income. There are many sociologists who have argues that the family policies developed by the New Right increased inequalities and poverty.