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

You know that “cut the credit cards up” type reasoning and so-called austerity is partly what has got us into the mess we’re in?

It’s been proved not to work.

Didn’t the Tories do a great job of making people hate other people. It’s so present in all areas of life now.

I think they should have lifted it as soon as they came into power, as it’s a cruel policy which has pushed many children into poverty.

No axe to grind as I don’t get any benefits and only have two children anyway. But I do care about people other than myself!

This is likely to try and squash MPs who are angry about the breaking of the manifesto pledge.

The electorate won’t take tax rises and benefit increases. They’ve probably given up on what people think entirely, just trying to stay in leadership.

Sorry you’re right although child benefit has a type of cap as well.

My point still stands however. It shouldn’t be lifted.

I thought the government were desperate for money? So they're going to tax everyone more so they can pay people who want more kids than they can afford - and encourage people to stay on benefits by getting paid to have more and more kids.

Nobody wants kids living in poverty but why are people having more kids than they can afford? They're obviously not the most responsible of parents and we're just encouraging them to have more.

I've managed to have sex for 35 years and only get pregnant once, it's really not that hard.

We don't need more kids if the 5% of the population (3 million people plus) who don't work started working. There are plenty of people to go around, what there aren't enough of are jobs. A higher birth rate isn't going to lead to more jobs, it's going to lead to more people on benefits because they can't find jobs.

Benefits should be treated the same way as charitable aid for other countries. It's an emergency fund to get you back on your feet. Not a long term option.
We have seen that charity does not work. It does not help third world countries to get themselves out of poverty.

No, I do not agree with lifting the 2 child cap. I believe parents should be encouraged to work, save, educate themselves in order to get themselves and their children out of poverty.

I don't want to pay / can't pay anymore tax. I am not taking anymore food from my kids table to give it to someone else...

Labour needs to cut the credit cards up and stop spending money that's not in the bank. Cut all welfare and put it towards debt.
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Nothing is being done to help working people. A single person earning less than £30000 now may as well give up work and claim benefits.

Yes i realise that most benefits are means tested
But some posters seem to think that child benefit is capped at two children it isn't, you can have ten children and if your eligible for child benefit you will get it for all of them
It's the child element of universal credit that is capped at two children.

Exactly this. There are over four million children living in poverty now. I don’t want to live in a country where this is the case. The cap should absolutely be lifted and if parents’ behaviour contributes Sure Start should be resurrected.

I don’t think it should be lifted. Tax should not be increased and the 2 cap lifted.

We are told that lifting it will lift children out of poverty yet when it comes to it no-one will show figures to prove this and we’ll still have thousands in poverty. There never seems to be enough money. Many people are restricting to 1 child, sometimes 2, it’s sensible, it’s manageable esp in cases where relationships go wrong.

People talk about needing more workers - really? Have you read the multiple posts of people not being able to get jobs. Seen the benefits bill for those that aren’t working? Whose to say all these extra children will be taxpayers?!

I have no doubt they’ll lift it. Giving more to their voter base and screwing the rest of us, except when we all change our habits so get tax take actually falls.

If living in poverty means living in households earning less than 60% of the median income, who are the new people ending up living in poverty if the cap is lifted? I’m not saying don’t help children but I assume that the people below the new poverty figure will be the disabled and pensioners who also have limited choices to increase income.

My area has schemes where you can get things like second hand uniform and children’s winter coats at very low prices. It costs money to get to this warehouse but it is both environmentally friendly and a helpful idea.

I believe that many schools do subsidised (free) breakfast club and after school care for low-income families too (maybe FSM?) I think that taxpayers would prefer practical help like that so parents can work.

Enriching activities where children get to find hobbies, learn new skills, keep fit and meet other kids should not be considered a luxury. Unfortunately years of austerity means we no longer have youth clubs and similar community initiatives that provided children with something to do. In some areas this pushes kids into gangs and crime, in other areas it means kids are isolated, not realising their full potential and potentially physically unhealthy. All kids deserve the same opportunities.

Also your point about no incentive to work - that’s simply not true. Many children who would benefit from extra support as detailed in the OP come from working families. But we’re living though a COL crisis and wages are low in this country. Imagine wanting to deprive children from some second hand nice clothes because some richer families have had to buy their kids nice clothes brand new?!

Child benefit is capped. It's capped my income, if you earn over a certain amount you don't get it.

I don't really understand your point. Is it that because Family A can't afford a third child because they're over the the threshold, the children in Family B should be made to live in poverty as some kind of cosmic retribution?

Again its not child benefit that has a cap its never been child benefit
Its the child element of universal credit that's capped and its significantly more than child benefit .

It’s the right thing to do to lift the 2 child UC child element cap. There are other ways to tackle the huge debt the country is in. This is a sensible and caring move if they do lift it and will restore confidence in Labour. I’m 100% behind this. It may very well be what stops Reform as well.

Yes it should stay unless they also address the unfairness in the whole child benefit system

why should “poorer” families be supported to have more children paid for by the taxpayer than they can afford but others are not by way or the child benefit higher income charge which penalises single income families

AI will be foremost in the mind of the government think tanks, we are moving towards universal income. Everyone will be on benefits.

I think raising the 2 child benefits cap will have precious little effect. But the money will get spent (not put into savings) by the families who need it... its one way to boost the economy a little bit.

Absolutely everything you have listed as ideas is what is provided at my school.
in terms of the cap and lifting it, I don’t know enough to comment.

If Labour simultaneously increase the welfare bill while raising taxes then they have completely trashed their manifesto promises and will be opening the door wide to a reform government. They have no popular mandate for that and no, I hope they do not lift the cap. There are other ways of protecting children that do not involve rewarding feckless parents. I desperately hope they come to their senses but unfortunately I think Starmer is far too weak to stand up to the left wing of his party.

I think we should scrap the 2 child only. The birth rate is falling. We need more children to be born. It’s a problem throughout the western world.

But is it right that parents just over the threshold can't afford another child but someone on UC could have another because others will be paying for it?

We don’t. But the time they enter the workforce it’ll be changed by AI.

By a Porsche isn't a child, is it? It's a machine, not a person. But whether you like it or not these children exist, and they grow up in poverty, and that blights their whole lives. And lifting the two child cap is the difference between 500,000 existing children growing up in poverty, or growing up with the basic necessities of life.