At least, that’s what this government has decided it is.

Two can live as cheaply as one, as the old saying goes. That would be good news from May 15th. This government has decided that two can live much more cheaply than one.

A single person, over state pension age, and claiming Pension Credit, will qualify for £167.25 a week in benefits. That’s for day to day living costs without housing help.

If he, or she, forms a relationship with another, younger, him, or her, you might expect there to be some increase in their living costs as there are now two people involved.

The new rules don’t work like that. Because they move onto Universal Credit, they get the Universal Credit rate for a couple.

That’s £114.81 a week.

So the government’s new rules decide that a single older person needs more money, every week, to meet their needs, than the same single older person when they’re also supporting another younger person.

On that basis, you might expect that adding extra partners in a polygamous marriage would keep driving the amount of money needed down until they start paying the DWP. At least the rules don’t do that – and there are mixed age polygamous marriages rules in the new regulations.

Benefits rules have always given couples less than single people. That recognises the fact that people living together have some common expenses which reduce their total costs. Nobody seriously argues against that. I have yet to find anybody who would seriously argue for the idea that feeding, clothing and providing for another person will reduce your costs by almost 1/3.

If the younger person had been claiming Universal Credit for themselves, before becoming one of the couple, they would have qualified for £73.14 a week. The two people, living separately, would, without housing support, have received £240.39 altogether.

That makes the price of love, for the couple, £125.58 a week.

Isn’t romance wonderful?