Why not just lift the 2 child benefit cap for kids already born?r kids whr

Your welcome to have my old neighbour and her types as yours

Jesus wept.

I also wasn’t even alive in the 80’s 🤣

Grew up next to a sink hole, lived next to a drug den where the mother churned out kids then lost them all. I know plently first hand about the families that will repeat the cycle regardless of cash thrown at them.

Chucking money at a crack head wont make her children better off, nor will the pot headed father who had a new baby mum every year.

Those in need who more help would help are not the ones who would be targeted as ever. The children in dire poverty the parents would spunk every last penny still in themselves fixing nothing.

I much prefer the move towards free breakfasts and lunches at school which this govt is moving towards, and increased funding of holiday clubs.

Plus investment in education and healthcare and childcare

Extra cash to parents won't necessarily reach the children.

Decent free meals, decent education and decent healthcare benefits everyone.

I get that people can fall on hard times, I've been there when I left my abusive ex. And I was so grateful for the free lunches at school and the tax credits for childcare which meant I could just about scrape by and work my way up to a more financially comfortable position .

I would like to see the govt give the CMS more teeth to go after non resident parents though. It's outrageous how many dads, in particular, just walk away without contributing anything

And how will those families having less money make this situation better?

If as you seem to think parents would spend the money how they want anyway, then there is now less to spend and less for those children.

Also, it seems like you've got your ideas on families in poverty right out of the Daily Mail in the 80s.

World population is forecast to peak around 2050. And extreme child poverty worldwide has been drastically reduced in the past 30 years.

The UK, like most advanced economies, currently has a problem of too few children to keep it going in the future. You need 2.1 children per woman and it's well below that. At that point you have to either import people or accept that there won't be enough to keep the pensions paid. South Korea is staring down the barrel here, with 0.8 children per woman. I was told today that last year more Koreans bought a dog stroller than a baby stroller.

Meanwhile France gives tax credits for any number of children, and if you have three and work in the public sector, you get to retire 5 years earlier. The UK urgently needs ways to get people to have more children, especially since immigration is unpopular right now (and, with the world's population stagnating, a lot of other countries are going to start to have problems with aging). I don't know if better benefits for larger families are the way to go, but it would seem to be a reasonable thing to try.

Agree with @Beth216 and double agreement with the final paragraph. Fund the child, via services. Don't dish out money to parents, because if the parents are selfish, the child won't see much benefit.

It did reduce it, by the equivalent of 5600 kids per year according to the Child poverty action group. So over the last 7 years since it came in that would be nearly forty thousand kids.

Unfortunately still plenty of people having 'shock' pregnancies, not knowing the cap existed until after they had their third, having children without worrying about whether they could afford them or not, or changing circumstances that they weren't prepared for (according to the same website when they did a survey).

No one should be having three or more kids in this day and age IMO, the planet doesn't need it, you don't know when your circumstances might change and nobody 'needs' 3 or more kids.

Giving more money to these families definitely isn't the answer, more youth clubs, more mental health provision, more early years education, more free school meals during school and the holidays, more mentors, more family hubs. That would be much more beneficial to these kids than handing their parents money and hoping they start making good decisions with it.

It's not child benefit that has beeen withdrawn. What has been withdrawn is the right to claim any other benefit (like UC) for third and subsequent children born after 6 April 2017 unless a twin/multiple birth or conceived via rape. There's a huge difference. So I support keeping the present rules, because as a contributing taxpayer, I don't want to fund third and fourth babies for families that depend on pumping out a baby every three years to keep the income flow. Get a job, pay some tax.

With the world population ever rising and more children worldwide in real dire poverty is it really sensible to have more than two children? And to have more children when you have to claim benefit to support the two you already have is ridiculous, 'I just wanted a large family' doesn't cut it. Then to expect the state to support these children as well as the first two is unbelievably entitled.

And giving extra money for every extra child didn’t actually improve their outcomes because those parents tended to still spend it how they wanted rather than on actual beneficial things for their children.

The sink hooe
estates with 8 children 10 years ago are the same sink hole estates todays it’s just the next generation breeding. Throwing money at it doesn’t fix it.

'Start shaming feckless parents'. Your tone is a disgrace.

Have a think.

The outcome is the same for the children regardless of whether you think their parents are at fault or not. It's solving nothing just plunging more children into poverty. And guess what? Bringing children up in poverty does not lead to good outcomes for them or society as a whole. So it is within our interest to support all children regardless of how we view their parents choices.

I think you might be missing out. Its per kid in England

There really wouldn't

You're wrong

It doesn't matter.

If the state has to pay it, it comes to over a billion pounds.

Where do you draw the line? Do elderly people who haven't saved anything still get state pensions, assistance with care? They should have saved! It's all their own fault!
At least the kids in this can't be blamed, even if their parents were irresponsible reckless rabbits as is obviously and always the case if you have more than two children.

That's exactly what was done when it was out in place, hence children born before April 2017 (date off top of head might not be accurate) are excluded.

Yeah they tried this

This is not true! I can't claim it for my third, but I can claim it for my first 2 - I do not (and have never since you are asking) claimed any other benefits in my life. I have a decent full time job, but I can claim for my first two, and not my third.

It's nit child benefit we are talking about. It is the child element of universal credit, which is significantly higher. Child benefit is available gir all children who's parents earn under a certain threshold.

"The child benefit cap is the biggest cause of the growing child poverty gap"

Where's the parents responsibility in this?

Seriously CB for subsequent children is £16.95 per week - less than £900 per year. No-one has kids for that kind of money! As far as other benefits are concerned; UC is already capped. Okay, some families would get more if subsequent children were included in calculations, but there wouldn't be an incentive to carry on forever churning them out because of this.
Child benefit really turns Mumsnet into sexist hypocrites - this stereotype of women endlessly reproducing like rabbit for government tuppence. Get real. The child benefit cap is the biggest cause of the growing child poverty gap. Isn't that what matters?

It isn't the taxpayers that are punishing the children in this case, it is the parents that choose to have a third.