How likely are they to do this?

I agree, nice guy2. It's actually only a small proportion going to families in our situation.

What is incredibly frustrating is that all parties agree the welfare bill is too high. Yet if you look at the figures, the largest chunk of benefit spending is actually pension payments and pension credits (about 50%). This is not including the amount paid to ex-public sector workers in final salary pension schemes.

Yet none of the main parties are willing to address the elephant in the room which is that pension payments need fundamental reform. Otherwise all we're doing is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. How can any party seriously expect to tame the benefit bill if they're protecting half the budget because they're terrified of the grey vote??

Unless you would be comfortably able to support a 4th yourself, as well as your existing 3 without credits, I wouldn't risk it. The odds are not in your favour for that gamble - the credits are far more likely to go than stay, whoever gets in.

My uninformed advice (ie I haven't seen any draft manifestos to know if this will definitely happen) is that if you are reliant on state support to be able to afford another child you would be very foolish to assume that support will continue for the next 18 years. All of the main parties agree that the welfare bill is too high; there is a broad public consensus that large families should pay their own way not rely on the state. Put together I wouldn't, in your shoes, take the risk of having a baby you might not be able to afford when you have other children to support too.

UKIP/Tories/Coalition will cut most
LibDems alone a bit less
Labour less again
Green less than Labour
Scot/Welsh Nats less than them
TUSC/Left Unity not at all

Of course you should have children and of course the whole society should
support each other
Those kids will be doctors/home care workers/bus drivers etc for us when we are old. We all benefit

I did answer! I said whoever gets in next will follow the same sort of line on this.

Do not rely on it in the future OP.

Nobody can answer it Angels, it will probably come in at some point, who knows when and whatever party wins the next election!

If you can afford to support a child on your current income and have no reason to doubt that the income is secure for the foreseeable future then it's not unreasonable to go ahead and have another child. If the main earner in the house later unexpectedly loses his/her job/becomes incapacitated so that they can't work/buggers off leaving other parent to cope, that's when the safety net of welfare support should be there - can you see the difference?

'Others' don't foot anyone's credit card bill or make their loan payments, no, it's not the same thing at all. You can afford your current family on your current income without going into debt and that's a good thing. So why not be satisfied with what you have rather than angrily looking to blame others for what you can't afford?

Dotting...footing!

To clarify, in case I didn't understand your question...loans and credit cards are NOT the same as welfare payments, borrowing money does not mean someone else is dotting your bills, just because you've never taken on any debt makes no difference to the fact that you are expecting other people to support your child.

Yes Angels, it is. Credit cards and mortgages just defer payment - plus interest - by the person responsible, they don't pass the cost on to anyone else (except in exceptional circumstances such as bankruptcy, in which case the lender, not the taxpayer, suffers the loss?.

It's not the government's fault that you're on a low income. You have to cut your cloth according to your means and determine your own priorities. Shit can happen to anyone and that's when society steps into help. But to rely on the state as an ongoing way to finance your personal lifestyle choices is really setting yourself up for disappointment.

And tbh, I feel more sorry for people that cannot get finding for IVF to have their 1 and only child, than I do for people that are lucky enough to already have 3, sorry. My colleague would be a fantastic mother, but lives in the wrong postcode. There's no way her and her DH could afford any more treatment (they paid for one, but neither are on a high salary). That one didn't work, so they remain childless

No employer would pay an employee a few hundred pounds a month more for every child they decide to have so why should the taxpayer be expected to fund another few hundred pounds in tax credits for every new child born?

We haven't had a holiday for 6 years, 1 car, small mortgage.

We definitely cannot afford any more children though.

If you cannot afford another child without subsidy (i.e. tax credit) then you cannot afford it. Please tell me why your genetic material is so much more important to replicate than anyone else's?

There are lots of people who would love to have more children but they cannot afford it, so they don't.