First Labour f up

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The BBC are reporting that there are Labour mps calling for the new government to scrap the limit of 2 children on child benefit

I'm working class and have family members who have had, 7, 5 and several 4 kids. Neither parent worked and the fact that each child got benefit encouraged them to have more, even though they really could not afford it.

so Labour mps want to encourage people who struggle, and those who don't actually, to have more kids...with the impact on the state, housing in the future and the environment..discuss

There’s nothing to discuss.

Need to keep their clients happy. Tip of the iceberg.

Discuss?

Yeah sure mate, those thousands you get a week for popping out sprogs well worth innit, got my Sky, my land rover, my holidays etc

Haha yep I'm sure all the mums of more than 2 children did it for an extra twenty quid a week. FFS.

You must be sadistic if you’d prefer children to stay in poverty.

Really, have you got a link that you can post here? I am interested to know what you have read to make a statement like that.

All the ones lamenting labour here, you do realise they're in the job a wet week yeah? So the sorry state of the country/ social welfare lies solely in the laps of the Tories. You might give Labour at least a month before you start laying blame. Just to look even slightly credible ya know?

Fuck off, OP.

This

Well, Labour are likely to inflict power cuts or, at the very least, rationing of electricity. Decarbonise the grid, shut down North Sea oil and gas, import electricity from France or depend on unreliable renewables. With that fuckwwit Ed Tombstone Milliband in charge. What could go wrong? As well as being a treacherous, he is monumentally stupid.

When the worst thing you can think of to say about a government is that they’re taking action to decrease the number of children who are living in desperate poverty I think you really need to have a long hard think about your attitudes and empathy.

Well I’m sure those who are working and having to limit how many children they have because they can’t afford more will just have to work harder, so that they can pay for those who fancy having 3 4 5 or more children and not paying for their own children.

Health outcomes for immigrants tend to be worse than indigenous population with the attendant financial
implications.

Pre-election, Starmer said that they would not be able to afford to scrap the cap. That still appears to be the government's position.

Also pre-election, Suella Braverman was calling for the cap to be scrapped - didn't hear many Conservatives objecting then?

Either way, longer term I do think we should scrap the cap and otherwise make having larger families more affordable - either people in the UK start having larger families or we we'll need to have more immigration, increasing year on year-on-year, which isn't exactly politically popular.

That's only one part of the puzzle, though. We probably also need to improve paternity leave too, so that having children does not disproportionately disadvantage women's careers.

Personally I would say throw more money at working parents. More subsidies for childcare if parents work.

It was in their manifesto wasn’t it?

The Labour dream no? Their virtuous welfare state clients can shag, smoke, drink and fritter their days away supported by the taxpayer. The poor shmucks grafting away will just have to pay more and more tax.

Can’t help but to think we should be supporting people in work who want to have more kids or are single parents. Providing tax relief and actually free childcare with expanded hours is going to be more useful alongside an expansion in housing.

Say you are a single mum on 30k with 3 kids. Wouldn’t say 25k tax free and working hours childcare be useful to you? A government note says that 40% of people affected by the 2 child tax credit cap are not in work. If you can’t work because you are a single parent with 3+ kids then proper free childcare will help a lot and you keep more of the money you earn once you do get into work.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-and-child-tax-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2024/universal-credit-and-child-tax-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-two-children-april-2024

Wtf? You're obviously missing out on the dream lifestyle there so. Not Labour's fault if you don't take them up on their generous offer 🤔

Exactly. The fact that the cap isn’t being removed is a major gripe of mine. It would remove a million kids from poverty instantly.

Depends what your attitude is to personal responsibility, I guess. I don’t think government support should enable feckless, chaotic, inadequate parents to breed indescriminatly. The rule was brought in to stop welfare spongers grabbing more money per month than decent, working families. I think if you need to rely on handouts, you don’t get to have more than two children.

Did the 2 child cap have any effect on whether people had another child or not? I do know that the number of children living in poverty has risen though.

The releasing of prisoners early to make space has always been a thing, not a labour only policy I remember them doing it when I was a probation officer. The prisons are full, where are they going to put those that need to be behind bars for public protection. They are not releasing violent or sexual offenders early.

Labour do it to keep the proles down and voting for them. They aren’t going to go and work towards a career of any sort when they see the parents living off the state.

It would be better to spend the money on education, social care, health education, improving living standards.

And yet working people, for several elections now, have been more likely to vote Labour than Conservative. Higher earners are also more likely to vote Labour that those on lower incomes.

(For balance; unemployed people are also more likely to vote Labour; it's retired voters who are more likely to vote Conservative or, this time out, Reform),

There’s a family with four hungry kids. Those kids appear at your door asking for money for food.

Do you
a) Give them a bit of money for food or
b) Keep the kids hungry cos their parents should’ve been less feckless.

It’s always about the kids.