Do you think we should life the two child benefit cap?

They are raising taxes and increasing welfare spending. How is that going to grow the economy or increase productivity?

2 kids is plenty. People who don’t receive benefits don’t get a pay tie when they have another kid, they have to plan and budget accordingly.

Labour doing what they always do. Completely incompetent

For a myriad of reasons it’s impossible to 100% plan not to have more than two children, unless ever man in the country is going to have a vasectomy.

Triplets as a first pregnancy, Catholics, marital abuse etc

I think pushing children into poverty is wrong.

You can't choose whether to be disabled, or elderly, or ill, but you can choose the number of children you have

Children don't choose to be born, least of all into poverty. But you want them to be the ones to pay the price for other people's choices. The most vulnerable members of our society - who can't earn money, advocate for themselves, vote or improve their station. They're the ones you think should pay the price.

I hope someone from the Labour party reads this thread and looks at the poll. Almost three quarters of people don't want the cap lifted. Many of these people will see their life meaningfully adversely impacted by the imminent tax rises. A link will be made between these two things and people will be beyond angry that their money is being used to fund something they absolutely disagree with. This isn't the way to build a cohesive and compassionate society. Resentment and anger will bubble over.

What next? Pay for other people's pets? Holidays?

No, it should not be lifted. The easy availability of free contraception (and free termination where applicable) to all should mean families having only the number of children they can afford to raise. Yes I know someone could have unexpected twins, but that's an exception rather than the rule. There are far too many demands on taxpayers' money to allow subsidising unlimited numbers of children. You can't choose whether to be disabled, or elderly, or ill, but you can choose the number of children you have. If unlimited numbers are in fact subsidised then there's no incentive to have any self control or take responsibility.

Is this a joke? If you want to have £50k coming in, get a job that pays that. Don't go after someone else's money. Jeez.

Depending on school, a lot of extra curricular activities are free or definitely offered as free to selected students (I recall paying for my son to do football a few years ago with an external provider and was talking to another parent who told me how great it was for them to offer training for free!). Generally my children's school now do all clubs for free, even if it is an external provider. Unfortunately the uptake doesn't always get to the groups that you are thinking of. Same with the HAF schemes. They target certain groups but often these groups for some reason do not access them. More research should be done into why.

My belief is that child benefit should be given as vouchers which are restricted in how they are spent. Yes this is very nanny state, but there is always a perception benefits are spent on alcohol, vales or cigarettes so to me if they were given as a generic supermarket voucher that could be used in any store but only in food items then this would shut up the haters and ensure that all children have a contribution to food.

If you have more than two children, it is very likely that one of you will be unable to work full time so why on earth shouldn't you be compensated and there are many reasons for having more than two children (not including twins)

Cultural Reasons
Religious reasons against contraception/abortion
Wanting children to have the security of many loving siblings
Prioritising a large family over a career
Wanting to contribute more humans to society
Because they could once afford them before a downturn in circumstance
Simply wanting to!

It does seem harsh that paying those who choose to have more than two children seems to be frowned upon and thank goodness we have a government that disagrees with this.

I think it is not unreasonable, while at least two children are under 12 to ensure that the family are on £50,000 a year and I think there are whisperings among some in the Labour party that this is not without merit although because of the optics surrounding it, it won't happen until the next term.

Still, we have to start somewhere and lifting the two child cap is a start at least.

If you have more than two children, it is very likely that one of you will be unable to work full time so why on earth shouldn't you be compensated and there are many reasons for having more than two children (not including twins)

Cultural Reasons
Religious reasons against contraception/abortion
Wanting children to have the security of many loving siblings
Prioritising a large family over a career
Wanting to contribute more humans to society
Because they could once afford them before a downturn in circumstance
Simply wanting to!

It does seem harsh that paying those who choose to have more than two children seems to be frowned upon and thank goodness we have a government that disagrees with this.

I think it is not unreasonable, while at least two children are under 12 to ensure that the family are on £50,000 a year and I think there are whisperings among some in the Labour party that this is not without merit although because of the optics surrounding it, it won't happen until the next term.

Still, we have to start somewhere and lifting the two child cap is a start at least.

Agree with @Sirzy . Many people don't take an active decision to have the children they do; and of those who are planning their families, most of those are not deciding whether or not to have children based on child benefit questions. The underlying belief of the policy is that people are having more children because they think it will be a financial benefit. My hypothesis is that the number of people to whom that applies is incredibly small. Personally, as someone who had twins for her second pregnancy this kind of stuff winds me up. (And am at the other end of the parenting scale: I now have three kiddos going to uni at the same time and that is not taken into account when means testing my household, which also irritates me.)

If Reeves puts up income tax, millions of people will have to make cut backs to their own lifestyle. She can't then use their money to pay for other people's children. It literally makes no sense.