I'm sick of the '選び出す／独身 税金' on holidays! Why should I 支払う／賃金 £900 more for a 巡航する 簡単に because I'm not married?
Not having children means that, unlike some of my poor friends, my summer holiday is not dictated by school 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 times.
While they 支払う／賃金 through the nose in August, I can jet off somewhere in June or September instead. So that must mean that my freedom to travel whenever I want will 逮捕する me an 絶対の 取引…権利? Wrong. It would do if I was coupled up, but as I’m 選び出す／独身 I can 推定する／予想する to be 扱う／治療するd 完全に 異なって because I don’t have a （犯罪の）一味 on my finger.
The dreaded ‘選び出す／独身 補足（する）’ ― a 刑罰，罰則 for holidaying alone ― is still used 広範囲にわたって throughout the travel 産業 にもかかわらず repeated calls to 禁止（する） such an outdated practice.
Last week, as I started to 計画（する） my summer hols, I had a look at the First Choice website and a week-long break in Santorini, Greece. A flight and room only 取引，協定 staying at the simple but 素晴らしい Mathios Village 訴える手段／行楽地 was going to cost me £976 if I travelled at the beginning of June. Then I 設立する out that if I was part of a couple, then the exact same holiday would only cost me £747.
'Why does it cost me £2,699 for a 14-day 巡航する around the Med with MSC in July, when a couple only 支払う／賃金 £1,799 each?' asks Claudia Connell
At least they were 用意が出来ている to 申し込む／申し出 me a room, albeit at a 示す up. I should be pathetically 感謝する for that I suppose, because so many holidays that were 利用できる for couples were strangely unavailable for 選び出す／独身 travellers.
I decided to look at all inclusive 取引，協定s instead, where the news was even worse! On the Tui website, a week at the ドームs Autograph Collection in Zante would 始める，決める me 支援する £2,846, 含むing flight. For that I would get three meals a day, 制限のない 軽食s and アル中患者 drinks. For a couple the price suddenly dropped to £1,799 per person.
How does that make any sense? Two people are going to eat and drink way more than one.
My fury grew when I looked at 巡航するs. Why does it cost me £2,699 for a 14-day 巡航する around the Med with MSC in July, when a couple only 支払う／賃金 £1,799 each? I can pile my plate high and knock 支援する the pina coladas with the best of them, but I’d have to go some to 消費する £900 more 価値（がある） of food and cocktails.
Do they think us （テニスなどの）シングルス are such saddos that we’ll be 溺死するing our 悲しみs in sauvignon blanc and hogging at the buffet on a 最高の human 規模?
I’m so angry that we’re still having to put up with this in 2024 that I’m 本気で considering 調書をとる／予約するing a holiday for me and my made up husband and then, once on the holiday, （人命などを）奪う，主張するing he’d left me the week before. Sneaky, but 価値（がある） a 発射 if it will save a grand.
These 刑罰，罰則s or ‘選び出す／独身 税金’ are not 限られた／立憲的な to travel. In 2018 it was 概算の that it cost a 選び出す／独身 person £2,049 more to live than a couple. Today, によれば 研究 by 財政上の planners Hargreave Lansdown, that 人物／姿／数字 is an 注目する，もくろむ-watering £10,320.
Next month the 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 on my 現在の mortgage comes to an end. My 仲買人 is working her socks off to find me the best possible 取引，協定, but it’s looking like I’ll be 支払う／賃金ing an extra £500 a month. Imagine how much more bearable that would be if I could 分裂（する） that with someone else. And that’s before we get to the £7,000 a year I’m forking out for 公共事業（料金）／有用性s and 保険. The stingy 25 per cent 割引 I get on my 会議 税金 barely makes an 衝撃.
If I could 捕らえる、獲得する myself a husband between now and next month, when my car 保険 is up for 再開, I could save myself a few quid. Yes, unmarried drivers 支払う／賃金 more for 保険 than married ones.
Aviva will insure me as a singleton for £403 but as a married they’ll put it 負かす／撃墜する to £377.
M&S will insure me for £807 but will give me £13 off the price if I’m a ‘Mrs’.
保険会社s consider married people to be more stable and いっそう少なく likely to take 危険s. Oh yes, that’s me, forever 成し遂げるing handbrake turns in disused carparks at midnight.
The truth is I have a pitifully low mileage and mostly use my little 小型の Cooper to 阻止する to Sainsbury’s and 運動 to friends’ houses. What a 無謀な 危険 taker! In 2012 it was made 違法な for 保険会社s to penalise 顧客s based on gender alone. It seems penalising over 結婚の／夫婦の status is just 罰金 though.
Lately it feels like I am 絶えず biting my tongue when couples ― 特に those with children ― complain about the cost of living.
Nobody is 否定するing that it can be expensive to have children but there is help 利用できる to 補助装置 with those expenses.
Married couples get 税金 breaks and a couple, on my 給料, with two kids would get £2,213 a year in child 利益 加える up to 30 hours 解放する／自由な childcare if the kids are not of school age.
Never was the unfairness of it all made plainer than when the 政府 was dishing out Covid 認めるs to the self-雇うd in 2020. Nobody 収入 more than £50,000 per year was する権利を与えるd to a bean ― やめる 権利 too, that’s not 正確に／まさに a pittance. Yet a co-habiting couple 収入 £49,999 each were 適格の to 適用する for 解放する／自由な dosh they’d never have to 返す.
When it comes to the cost of living, food 法案s are where many have noticed the はっきりした dents in their wallets. And you’ll never guess who 耐えるs the biggest brunt of that…step 今後 選び出す／独身 folk, 支払う／賃金ing up to 25 per cent more just to 料金d ourselves.
にもかかわらず 選び出す／独身 世帯s 存在 the biggest growing demographic in the world ― there are 8.3million in the UK alone ― most food is 一括d with two or four people in mind.
Claudia Connell bemoans the fact that?選び出す／独身 folk 支払う／賃金 up to 25 per cent more just to 料金d themselves
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference lasagne for two is £6.50. A 部分 for one is £4.25. Over at Ocado a 500g コンテナ of its lean mince is £3.49 but at £2.20 half the size (250g) certainly isn’t half the price.
Size up to ‘serves four’ 部分s and the prices get even lower, leaving those that live alone with two choices: make 貯金 but find yourself eating the same thing all week, or buy for one and suck up the extra cost.
Even eating out can be a 哀れな experience as you’re 申し込む／申し出d a seat at the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 or the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する by the door that nobody else want s. Open the menu and you might even find yourself banned from ordering 確かな dishes. Paella? Beef Wellington? Salmon en croute? Not unless there’s someone with you to 株 it.
It isn’t just people who’ve never married who are 存在 clobbered, it’s the 未亡人d and 離婚d too. Gyms, rail companies, the 国家の 信用 and countless others all seem to want to 引き裂く off 選び出す／独身 folk rather than throw us a bone.
It’s why I’d welcome the chance to buy ベルギー 政治家，政治屋 Carla Dejonghe a drink if I ever got the 適切な時期. Aware that 選び出す／独身 people are 支払う／賃金ing over the 半端物s for just about everything ? she has spent a １０年間 （選挙などの）運動をするing for fairer 治療.
In her municipality, just outside Brussels, she’s helped 押し進める through a new 借り切る／憲章 that encourages 歓待 発生地s to be more inclusive of 選び出す／独身 people, that recommends new 住宅 含むs communal areas for socialising and asks workplaces to stop 極端に relying on 選び出す／独身 people to take on overtime.
As Dejonghe said, ‘society has 発展させるd but 政策s have not’.
We are all feeling the pinch but if you are a 二重の-income 世帯 then, believe me, your pinch is far いっそう少なく painful than the one 現在／一般に bruising 選び出す／独身 people all over the country.
