To think the 2-child benefit cap is fine?

To be fair, in your scenario, the ex shouldn't be able to get away with paying pitiful CMS.

And tbh, that's true of a lot of the circumstances where people suggest we need the benefit cap revoked. CMS shouldn't be about what the absent parent can afford. It should be about what the child needs and those costs split proportionally between the parents. If one / both parents then fall on hard times, that's when benefits should kick in imo.

I was lucky enough never to have had UC as worked full time. I longed for a third child but my boss would not have increased my pay if I had a third. Still regret not having a larger family, to have gone ahead would have caused poverty for my children. My fellow worker gave up work when she had kids. Both our marriages failed, but she had 3 children on claiming extra benefit for a third child. Can someone please explain why that is fair?
As pp said we cannot send them back, but surely govt could pay for children in existence but not those conceived after claim began

The cases are from:

1. One heard from the radio over discussions of the cap
2. A friend of mine.

People don't seem to understand that we are not producing enough children in the UK.

The birth rate in Scotland is something like 1.39 per woman and in England it is something like 1.49.

Child benefit isn't capped
It's universal credit / tax credits thst are capped at two children.

That’s a lot of money. I did not know that.

It's mainly about the child element of Universal Credit. Which is £287.92 per month per child.

Careful - you sound like you want to have an informed opinion 🤫

😂

I'd rather see the introduction of fsm for all children rather than remove the cap.
Look at increasing the threshold for income tax, breaks for childcare, bring back sure start. School breakfast and afternoon clubs with meals.

Having three children is a choice, I know they are circumstances where situations change, and all of the above would help support that, but UC shouldn't be there to enable people to have more kids than they can afford.

Well, I have not understood this debate at all! I assumed it was a cap on child benefits. What other benefits are there that are capped?

Is there any evidence the cap deters irresponsible people having kids?

How much do you pay in tax? Because I’m willing to bet quite a lot that you’re not a net contributor. People with this kind of attitude so rarely are.

"I'd still be paying £800 pm if I had 1 kid or 50."

You rent is typically going to vary by how many bedrooms are in the property.

"Housing allowance of UC is based on how much rent you as the (probably only) adult liable for rent pay."

You are mistaken. There are different amounts payable depending on how many bedrooms you are entitled to. This is related to how many children you have, their ages and sexes.

For example, in my local authority area, if you are only entitled to one bedroom then the Local Housing Allowance is £575 per month.

For two beds it is £700 per month, for three beds it is £810 per month and for four beds it is £1,050 per month.

Regardless of the amount of rent that you are actually paying, you will only receive the Local Housing Allowance for the number of bedrooms that the rules say you are entitled to.

I'm not convinced that couples having unprotected sex are thinking of the consequences in terms of not getting UC for the potential additional offspring.

Some families already had more than 2 children before they became ill/ lost their jobs/their relationship broke down. None of them had a crystal ball.

I think the only fair way ( and yes i will be flamed for it) is that a cap should only come into force i have another whilst you are on benefits. If you already have 3 when you got onto benefits there is no more money for any born with a due date of 9.5 months of starting benefits.

This really. I get all the ‘but why should we punish the children’ replies, but there has to be some sort of cut off, doesn’t there? There IS a safety net for families in crisis, that doesn’t mean they should get unlimited money for an unlimited amount of children. If you decide to have children and you know there’s no family support in case the worst happens, then you are leading yourself up shit creek having so many more than you can cope with if something happens to your partner

Interesting that most comments are anti cap, but the vote is mainly pro cap.

I'd definitely favour money going into FSM, sure start centres, food vouchers etc. instead of benefits as a pp said. I think it increases chances that money gets to benefit children.

And no I don't trust that all parents will spend it wisely, and I do think that's my business when it comes from tax. Families not on benefits have to weigh up costs and family size/ can we afford another.

I don’t understand any of it. There’s a problem with the declining birth rate but no political will to support the children who are already here.

I completely agree with it. Hopefully it stops people having more kids then they can afford and expecting us to pay for them.

What I don’t understand is how it’s a surprise to anyone that children in larger families are more likely to live in poverty. Additional children require additional money shocker. There are loads of threads on here with women who want/decide to go ahead with a third even though things would be tight. The more dependents you have, the more vulnerable you are financially, and the more likely it is that something going wrong will be disastrous.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s fair on children to grow up in poverty and we need to put a stop to that but it’s pretty clear some parents tell themselves it will be ok money-wise when it won’t be. I’m not sure UC is the most effective intervention though, I think we should put extra money into things like funding for schools in deprived areas, FSM, healthy start vouchers, children’s dentistry, early years, free activities, free school uniforms etc instead - with some of those the economy of scale makes them more cost effective.

It's so depressing that it needs spelling out this clearly. And people still don't get it.

Why won’t they see it?

So what solution do you see for this issue instead?

But the children wont necessarily see the benefit of the extra money even if they do lift the cap. Then we are 2.5 billion down and the problem still exists.

Agree. It’s disgusting that so many people are happy to have so many children in our country living in poverty. Who does that serve??

The cap is cruel, discriminatory and hateful towards children. I’m sick of the attitude towards poor kids in this country 😞