Sheng nu cites studies that show that women are now breaking the tradition of "mandatory marriage" to have fewer children or marry later on in life. Other typologically similar terms that are still used in the modern lexicon of other countries and cultures show the concept has existed in some cases as far back as the 16th century. The term spinster was used to describe unmarried or single women of a marriageable age. It wasn't until 2004 when the Civil Partnership Act replaced the word spinster with "single" in the relationship history section of marriage certificates in the UK. Subsequently, at the
Index-linked Savings Certificates their increases to date and return only the initial deposit. Bonds cashed in beyond the first year yield the RPI indexing and premiums up to that month. Index-linked Savings Certificates are free from UK income tax making them relatively attractive to tax-payers, particularly higher rate tax-payers. They are backed by the Treasury of the UK Government so are considered to be safe deposits. The bonds come in issues. Each issue has a per person investment limit, currently 15000 pounds. The certificates used to be known as "Granny Bonds" because they were originally only available to savers who were over the