THE Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has urged the Church of England to cover wedding costs for low-income couples, to encourage “a pro-family, pro-marriage nation”.
A researcher on the CSJ, Luke Taylor, said in an announcement on Monday of last week: “In order to advertise marriage as each a personal and public good, the Church should go further and faster.” The variety of church weddings since records began in 1837 had been at its lowest in 2023, outside of the pandemic, he said.
In its report, Lost Boys: Boyhood, published this 12 months, the CSJ said: “Almost half of kids aged 0-5 in probably the most disadvantaged areas have seen their families break up, in comparison with only 16 per cent of kids in middle-class homes.”
To promote marriage and family stability, the CSJ called on the “established state religion” — the Church of England — to “commit to removing the executive, legal and booking costs as much as £650 to lower-income parishioners who marry of their parish church”.
The report outlined the present fee structure: as of January 2025, couples wishing to marry in a church must pay a fee of £544. Of this, £247 is goes to the diocesan board of finance, and the remaining £297 goes to the PCC.
It suggests that, if the C of E were to cover these fees, the “initiative would have cost the Treasury just £32 million”. The figure, it says, is the “maximum cost”, as “in point of fact it would be much lower as those on lower incomes are currently less prone to marry.”
Other fees, the report says, include those for the publication of banns, music, heating, bells, and a verger, although “a few of this will be waived on the discretion of the local church”.
The report says: “We cannot have marriage and its advantages being the preserve of the middle-classes while concurrently insisting that it’s just as advantageous to pursue unstable and unformalised partnerships.”
The organisation said that it was a “disservice to those that would profit probably the most from the soundness and protection that marriage confers — particularly those on lower incomes”.
The report draws on research (Families and Inequalities) by Dr Kathleen Kiernan and the Marriage Foundation’s research director, Harry Benson (We Need to Talk about Marriage). Citing these documents, the CSJ writes that, in 1958, “fewer than one in ten children didn’t live with each biological parents by the point they took their GCSEs” (sic). In 1970, “this had greater than doubled to 21 per cent”, and by “the millennium almost half (45 per cent) of kids this age lived with only one natural parent”.
It continued: “Incentivising stronger family unions through marriage is just about acknowledging that two parents are higher equipped to supply the love, care, and support that a baby needs than one. Given the demonstrable advantages of each a gift mother and father, we should always investigate how policy will be used to influence behaviour to this effect.”
The report also calls for expanding family hubs across the UK and tackling problematic screen use for young people.
Church House was approached for comment.
 has urged the Church of England to cover wedding costs for low-income couples, to encourage “a pro-family, pro-marriage nation”.A...){kind=link}