UK moves to subsidize Harems

[Pete at Home]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3414264/Want-higher-benefits-marry-one-wife-New-welfare-rules-hand-extra-taxpayer-cash-polygamists.html

In the UK, it is illegal to marry more than one person.

Polygamous marriages are only recognised if they took place in countries where they are legal.

That includes Middle Eastern states, Pakistan and Zambia

While there are no official figures, it is believed that there may be as many as 20,000 polygamous marriages in the British Muslim community.

Currently, a husband and his first wife receive up to £114.85 a week in benefits, with subsequent wives able claiming about £40 each.

Under the new universal credit system, which is not expected to be fully introduced until 2021, polygamous marriages will not be recognised at all.

The standard allowance is about £498.89 a month for couples, but single people can claim about £317.83.

That means the husband and his first wife will be able to claim the married couples' allowance and subsequent wives will be able to claim a single person's allowance.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3414264/Want-higher-benefits-marry-one-wife-New-welfare-rules-hand-extra-taxpayer-cash-polygamists.html#ixzz47oa8svjb

[Pete at Home]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/1577395/Multiple-wives-will-mean-multiple-benefits.html

“officials have identified a potential loophole by which a man can divorce his wife under British law while continuing to live with her as his spouse under Islamic law, and obtain a spouse visa for a foreign woman who [sic] he can legally marry.” The article goes on to quote an immigration rulebook:  "Entry clearance may not be withheld from a second wife where the husband has divorced his previous wife and the divorce is thought to be one of convenience." Benefit payments for all the wives may be deposited directly into the husband's bank account, the article explains in perhaps unintended but almost unbearable irony, “if the family so choose"

Note that Britons who marry more than one wife get incarcerated for seven years.  But Muslim foreigners who marry in Pakistan get subsidized.

[TheDrake]

By that reasoning, they are also subsidizing people who live together without getting married? There has always been this problem, and I wish that all taxation was based on individuals alone - what the US calls "married but separate" or more simply "single". It is an anachronistic practice from a time when only one individual in a marriage worked outside the home.

[Pete at Home]

No, single folks living together dont get more benefits.  If i moved in with my girlfriend, that would count as a single household for welfare purposes.  I think you have confused welfare with the tax system, which does work in some respects as you described.