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> Which is driven by a welfare system that punishes married couples with lower payments

Is this true? If you're not married, then doesn't only one person get to claim the benefits? Not benefits x2?

Single parents get more money than two parent families. Only one parent gets to apply but the payout is higher for a single parent. The system absolutely incentivizes single parent households.

I think this might apply only if you are married but filing together. Not separately. Not 100 percent sure about this though, so feel free to fact check me. We’ve been doing married filing separately and my wife has been getting the full amounts afaik.

Edit: did some light googling and yeah there was nothing obvious that being single parent is better than being married, financially. So I think the above claims will need some qualification.

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