[quantumBerry]

It doesn't have to.

But we have to look at what happens in reality. Financial turmoil is a leading cause of divorce. It is hard enough to pull yourself out of poverty, even harder with a child, even yet more difficult if you have a "dead-weight" partner no matter how much you love or care for them. The sad reality is a man who spirals into poverty is quite likely to lose his wife.

Also, it's a losing proposition to claim benifits while married. The government penalizes marriage in low income, benefits claiming couples [1]. And it's hard to look past the simple observation, born out by statistical analysis of divorce, that women simply choose to leave men who aren't able to provide.

"For example, a single mother with two children who earns $15,000 per year would generally receive around $5,200 per year of food stamp benefits. However, if she marries a father with the same earnings level, her food stamps would be cut to zero. A single mother receiving benefits from Section 8 or public housing would receive a subsidy worth on average around $11,000 per year if she was not employed, but if she marries a man earning $20,000 per year, these benefits would be cut nearly in half. Both food stamps and housing programs provide very real financial incentives for couples to remain separate and unmarried."

[1] https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/how-welfare-undermin...

[sterni]

The excerpt you cite concerns couples who choose to not marry in the first place, not people already married considering a divorce. In your example, the man brings 20000$ a year more to the household + 5500$ a year of welfare for the mother = 25500$. This is much more than the 11000$ a year the mother would get on her own. I hardly see how this example makes any sense

[quantumBerry]

And you completely overlooked the beginning of the paragraph, regarding food stamps

Scenario A (Mom+ 2 kids): 15k + 5.2k(FS benefits) -> 20.2k for mom on her own, plus whatever unmarried dad provides on the side. I can tell you as someone with kids if mom doesn't work, the cost of children go to damn near zero especially if mom can garden and willing to find free entertainment for children.

Scenario B (Mom + Dad + 2 kids): 30k + 0(FS benefits) -> 15k/adult.

>This is much more than the 11000$ a year the mother would get on her own. I hardly see how this example makes any sense

Only if you consider section 8 benefits in a vacuum and not the other massive difference in benefits between one mom with no income and a a family with a working father making 20k, such as aforementioned foodstamps.

I'm not aware of any distinction made between having been previously married vs never married in these section 8 or foodstamp benefits