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Stop financially penalising single people!
Another day, another reward for the romantically successful. I'm referring to the launch of the Two Together railcard, which offers couples a third off rail fares if they travel together. Shockingly the romantic rail travellers don’t have to sit on each other’s laps to get the cheap fares but can take up two seats safe in the knowledge that the singleton sitting opposite them has subsidised their journey.
Of course the blurb that accompanies the railcard says any two people can use it whether they’re lovers, business colleagues or friends. However the card bears two names and these can’t be changed to accommodate a variety of travelling partners so we all know it’s really targeted at couples. But then isn’t everything?
Discrimination
Single people are one of the few groups it’s still OK to penalise financially. If a new rail card couldn’t be used by gays, ethnic minorities or disabled people everyone would be up in arms about discrimination. But with just solo travellers excluded from benefitting, no one cares.
Well, no-one except single people, who are forced to pay over the odds for just about everything while subsidising “hard-working families”, that is. There appears to be a general assumption being that you can’t be hard-working if you don’t have a family despite working too hard actually being a common reason for people not having children.
Single supplements
Take the dreaded single supplement in hotels, for example. Solo travellers generally have to fork out an extra fee for the luxury of having a room to themselves.
Couples and tour operators justify this by saying it costs just as much to maintain a room regardless of how many people are in it. Arguably this might be true but it’s not just a room you pay for in a hotel: it’s the swimming pool, the gym, the hot water for showers, and the all-you-can-eat buffet – all used less if one person stays in a room rather than two.
If you decide to avoid package holidays to escape single supplements you’ll still end up paying more for flights per person than the family next door. Easyjet’s “top Easter getaways” start at £40 a seat but only if there are four or more people flying. Fly solo and you can be sure that you’re paying more than the annoying child behind you who kicks your seat for the entire flight.
Social engineering
Obviously singles living alone also have to pay their rent or mortgage and bills from one salary. This is often personal choice but the irritating thing is the powers-that-be mostly fail to recognise single people exist, let alone that they might be struggling financially.
The Government’s obsessed with socially engineering everyone into couples or families and simply ignores those who don’t conform.
Politicians and newspapers repeatedly conjure up visions of “hard-working families” and “hard-pressed parents” cutting back on this and juggling that in between heroically plodding off to work to keep the country afloat.
It’s almost as if single people don’t go to work, or pay tax, and get everything for free. Yet simple maths will tell you it’s harder to pay the mortgage and bills all on your own rather than splitting the very same costs with someone else.
Paying more for the same thing
Well, I say the same costs but there are some necessities singles are charged more for as a matter of course. Despite insurance companies not being allowed to discriminate on gender anymore, they can still discriminate by marital status.
Insurers openly admit they charge single people more than their coupled-up counterparts for car insurance as they’re a “higher risk”.
Following their logic this means I could become a safer driver overnight if I got hitched this afternoon. But I’ve already managed 20-odd years of driving without an accident – how could I get any safer?
If you’re single and somehow have enough cash to venture out, don’t expect to be welcome everywhere. Two-for-one deals at the cinema or restaurants are all aimed at couples – there’s no simple half-price alternative for people on their own.
Some establishments won’t even let you in if you’re alone. A friend of mine recently tried to buy a single seat at the theatre only to be told that the remaining tickets for the show in question were all in pairs and so he couldn’t buy just one.
