UKIP Manifesto 2019

For Brexit and Beyond
24. Children and Families
Stable, active and intact two-parent families with a mother and a father are the bedrock of a robust society,
whereas broken families are much more likely to be dependent on the state, and have poorer physical and
mental health.
• Family breakdowns may occur for a variety of reasons, but whatever the reasons, the cost to the
taxpayer of family breakdown is estimated to cost some £47 billion a year. (9) UKIP policy is to use the
taxation and benefits system to help families without disadvantaging others.
• Married couples with children are currently disadvantaged by the tax system. We will conduct a
thorough review to ensure that married couples are not financially disadvantaged by staying together and
living together.
• UKIP will raise the Marriage Allowance from 10% to 100% for married couples with dependent
children so that the individual basic rate Income Tax allowances of married couples with children are fully
transferable.
• UKIP opposed the re-definition of marriage imposed by the Conservative/LibDem coalition in 2013.
We will oppose moves to further re-define marriage to include, for example, incest, polygamy and
multi-person marriages.
• Adoption and fostering should ideally be with married couples. We will repeal the law which forced
Catholic and other Christian and faith-based adoption agencies to close for holding to their faith and
traditional family values. We will encourage them to re-open.
• Unborn children are children. 218,581 abortions were performed in the UK in 2018. UKIP will seek
to reduce the number of abortions carried out in the UK, and we will support alternative options such as
adoption.
• We will introduce further safeguards into the operation of the Family Courts to ensure that
injustices are not perpetrated on parents.
• UKIP will end all quotas and targets for child adoption or removing children from their families.
This is a morally repugnant practice. Children should not be taken from their parents or families except
when it is overwhelmingly in the best interests of the child.
• The age of consent should remain at 16, and the state should not give active or passive acceptance
to underage sex.
• Abortion or contraception should not be available to under-16s without parents being informed.
• Medical interventions for children under 18 associated with gender reassignment will be banned.
This includes puberty-blocking hormones, cross-sex hormones and surgical interventions for gender reassignment.
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