The UK’s tax and benefits regime encourages lone parent families, increases child poverty and treats Middle England with contempt, according to a comparison of fiscal systems in France, Germany and the UK published by independent think-tank, Civitas.

Civitas examined the impact of the tax and benefits system on different family types - two-parent, single-parent, and children of different ages - with that of a single, childless person earning the wages of an average production worker.

The study ran across the three countries and looked at the ways in which the three systems cushion the shocks of major lifestyle changes, like having children or splitting up, as well as the possible incentives and disincentives of each system.

Civitas found that the UK system provides financial incentives for many couples with children, especially those on low incomes or jobseeker's allowance, to break up or to keep their relationships informal. Parents who split up can receive around £4,000 more in handouts than couples who stay together.

These characteristics act as "perverse incentives to people to have and bring up children in the very circumstances in which they are most likely to experience poverty," argues Civitas. By contrast, the UK system "provides little cushion for average and higher earners who experience life changes, such as having a child".

Two-parent families do less well in the UK compared with the other countries, especially as they progress up the income scale. The French and Germans pay more in taxes than we do for a more generous state provision, but it is fairer than the UK system because its benefits are spread across the whole population, and there is a link between what you have paid and what you are entitled to receive.

In contrast, claims Civitas, redistribution of taxes and social security contributions in the UK is much more narrowly directed at low wage-earners and especially non-working or low wage-earning lone parents. Hence, many in the UK view welfare as a form of enforced charity payable to those who have not contributed their fair share.

Robert Whelan, deputy director of Civitas, concludes that: "The Blair government is undeniably pro-single parents and pro-non-workers or low-earners. Middle England gets short shrift from Gordon Brown."