Also the price of failure in education of children hurt by parents' divorce

Estimated price to the taxpayer for 2015 will be a staggering £47.31 billion

Study found cost of family breakdown went up by £10bn a year since 2009

The cost of family breakdown to the country has shot up by more than £10 billion a year since 2009, a study found yesterday.

It put the price to taxpayers in 2015 of clearing up the damage after families fail and looking after the separated adults and children at £47.31 billion.

The bill takes in the cost of benefits, health and social care, housing, policing and the courts, and the price of failure in the education system of children hurt by divorce or the parting of their parents.

A study found the cost of family breakdown has shot up by more than £10 billion every year since 2009

The Relationships Foundation think tank said that the money spent because of family breakdown amounts to three per cent of the economic product of the country and each taxpayer will have to contribute £1,546.

The bill has risen from £37.03 billion since the costs were first calculated in 2009. Over the past year alone, despite falling costs for policing, vandalism and disciplinary problems in schools attributable to family breakdown, the cost has risen by £1.55 billion.

The calculation comes a day after David Cameron's official survey of well-being found that married people have a much higher chance of happiness than those who live together in cohabiting relationships. Cohabitees are three to four times more likely to separate than married couples.

The report from the Relationships Foundation said: 'Despite cuts in Government spending the cost of family failure continues to rise. The continuing upward movement of the index does not even begin to take into account the intense pain and suffering felt by those experiencing family failure.

'It shows that family breakdown not only has a terrible human cost in terms of the emotional toll on all members of the family, but also an enormous financial cost to society as the taxpayer picks up the pieces.'

The Foundation said it backed the verdict of Marriage Foundation think tank – a separate organisation – that 'family breakdown is driven by the trend away from marriage.'

The bill takes in the cost of benefits, health and social care, housing, policing and the courts, and the price of failure in the education system of children hurt by divorce or the parting of their parents

It counted the highest single element of the cost of family failure as benefits, responsible for 35 per cent of the bill. Most of this, the Foundation said, is tax credits for members of broken families, which will amount to £13.44 billion this year, compared to £6.31 billion in 2009.

Despite Labour attacks on the 'bedroom tax' which restricts Housing Benefit payments for claimants with spare rooms, Housing Benefit costs of broken families have gone up from £3.69 billion in 2009 to £5.47 billion this year, the report said.

Next comes health and social costs, 33 per cent of the calculated bill.

The price for the NHS and local council social care comes to £15.43 billion all together, the Foundation said.

Policing costs and the cost of vandalism are down at a time of falling crime, it found, as is the cost of disciplinary trouble in schools. Rising employment means fewer children from broken families are getting free school meals.

The cost to the justice system will be £7.27 billion this year, down from £8.52 billion in 2012, and to the education system £2.53 billion in 2015 as opposed to £3.34 in 2013.

Foundation director Michael Trend called for more Government attention to shoring up families. 'Our view is that if you sideline family policy you court systemic failure,' he said.

'If we as a country want to see real progress in improving wellbeing, increasing children's life chances, higher educational attainment, less crime and reduced welfare dependency we need to take what this index is telling us seriously. All political parties need a long term strategy to support the modern family.'



