Petition
One wage should be enough - make tax fair for families
Rejected
9 signatures
What the petition asks
Introduce Optional Joint Filing for married couples and civil partners. Let households pool income, split it equally, and apply both partners’ tax allowances and bands. Keep individual filing as default so no one is worse off.
The UK tax system penalises families where one parent earns most or all of the income. Two people on £33k each pay far less tax than one earner on £66k supporting a partner and children. Optional Joint Filing fixes this unfairness, makes one wage go further, reduces reliance on Universal Credit, and brings us in line with family-friendly systems like Germany and France.
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
You may wish to sign this petition which calls for a similar action: Allow people to transfer all their personal allowance to their spouse
Timeline
| 1 Sep 2025 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 22 Sep 2025 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
9
Status
Rejected
Rejected
22 Sep 2025
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 1 Sep 2026.