The first of what may be a series of posts on the ways shared parenting can both reduce child poverty and save public money.

The major advantages, however, is the improvement in child welfare. Not dealt with here.

They will all be developments of one basic point. That the current arrangements impose so much child care on the mother that she cannot work, or work much, and therefore has to depend on public funds. Her career – and the benefits to the economy of her work – does not usually recover.

Meanwhile her ex has to be co-erced (often unsuccessfully)  into paying for the maintenance of children that are kept away from him.

The shared parenting model would be one in which both parents  had paid work, albeit often with reduced hours,  to dovetail with the shared child care.  The former ‘lone parent’ and the children are better off as a result of improved incomes and the sharing of costs.  She can keep her career and will be better off for life – and especially in old age as she will have been able to accumulate better pension rights.

The ex will be only marginally poorer, but will be happier. 

There will be less need for co-ercive  child maintenance arrangements. She sums involved will be much reduced and more readily paid because of the increased goodwill.

Above all there won’t be the current tension between the children being properly looked after and the mother being able to work.  The father will gladly supply free and loving child care.

As said in an earlier post, Britain does not have much of a problem of people being actually better off on benefit.  But it does have a problem of people being so slightly better off working than honestly its hardly worth it.

This hits lone parents particularly hard, because of the need there often is to pay for childcare while they are working.  Even when this is subsidised – often at taxpayers expense – it does not leave much out of a low wage.

But if the ex were allowed to look after the children free.....

Of course its easy to outline situations in which this will not help. But it will sometimes. The slogan ‘every little helps’ is not applicable here – for the help will very often be rather more a little.

Several billion pounds could easily be saved, while improving the lives of children too.