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

I can’t imagine many people having extra children just to get the Child Benefit. The old rules clearly didn’t stop your relatives producing more than two children.

It's not fuck up, it's an excellent decision (if they actually go ahead) that I'd be completely in support of. The 2 child limit harms children. And it doesn't stop people from having children. Just pushes children into poverty.

It's not child benefit. It's the additional hundreds of pounds a month from universal credit.

It’s right up there with asking for recommendations followed by …. “And go” 😵‍💫🤦🏼‍♀️

Because it makes people feel like shit. It grinds them down and singles them out. All because they happen to be poor at a particular time. It would not inspire people to 'do better', it would make them feel like lesser citizens that should disappear into the shadows with their vouchers and never be seen again. It's a crappy, demeaning system.

Loving the assumption that extra money will go toward the children!

Personally I did not have children until I could afford them and I am supportive of the current cap. As parents we need to take responsbility. Where one parent passes away I have more sympathy, but generally I am afraid I see some very irresponsible behaviour with the cost being moved to the tax payer.

Even if you don’t find it immoral that in a (relatively) wealthy country there are thousands of children living in poverty, financially penalising families for having more than two children fails to take into account that by doing so, you are simply increasing the costs further down the line. There’s plenty of research backing this up.

Let's get rid of the high income child Benefit cap too. It would make my life easier (and my husband earns ok)

Except that new oil licences haven't been banned. The events took place entirely in the imagination of a Telegraph reporter. https://www.cityam.com/government-denies-ed-miliband-has-banned-new-north-sea-oil-licences/

Plus, almost all North Sea oil is exported, because it's a different (higher!) quality to many other forms of crude oil.

Plus, oil is almost completely fungible. The UK has never been self-sufficient. Extracting oil from the North Sea is essentially a source of revenue, not of energy.

Plus, even if they did ban new drilling licences, this would take time to work through the system.

Hopefully, one of the advantages of a large majority and a government led by adults, who are not afraid to listen to actual subject matter experts, will mean that we can get away from "bloke in the pub" politics, after 10 or more years of "how hard can it be?" being the extent of downside risk assessment.

No one hates benefit cheats more than people on low incomes. I lived next door to a girl who was just like Vicky Pollard. She had three kids and didn’t work. The kids were loud, rude, and totally out of control. They lived on benefits and just did whatever they liked. If they felt like playing music at 2 am, they played music at 2am, and we all tiptoed around them. Because that’s what happens with these ‘problem families’. They enjoy themselves and do whatever they like, and everybody else has to accommodate them. Her brother ended up living there and would wake us all up in his ‘boy racer’ car, with its screeching, crackling exhaust. Frankly, I think it amused them to upset people. And there I was, like a mug, getting up at six in the morning to work so I could fund their life!!

It’s perfectly reasonable to say to someone who doesn’t work but has raised two kids on benefits that if you have a third we, as a society, are not prepared to pay for it. And most people would definitely support cutting the benefits of those whose kids ruin the neighbourhood. In fact, some people should be discouraged from having kids full stop. It’s ridiculous that we allow violent, ignorant, abusive people, with no moral compass, to raise children. Society pays a terrible, terrible price. I have known two different people driven to suicide attempts by violent, feral neighbours.

Agree

People who are skint will continue to have multiple children, regardless of how benefits are calculated.

It's not some poor kid's fault that his parents had 5 kids before him and don't work. I will never take issue with my taxes being spent on keeping children out of poverty.

If they are going to do this, they better fund it by taxing the 1%. Otherwise, if they just leave the very wealthy alone and tax the middle classes, it won't matter what size their majority was last time, they'll be a one-term government and then out of power for another couple of decades.

Not to mention, in all likelihood those parents won't be the most educated and might just make bad decisions. It's the way it goes until education can permeate. It takes generations. Certainly not the children's fault.

I think that's actually slightly worse tbf.

Labour were indeed first up in many constituencies last week as they clearly had the most popular manifesto of all the UK political parties.

The will of the people is quite clear, and we should now all support them in implementing that.

I don't think removing the cap is a fuck yo because as posters have pointed out, people don't have babies "to make money".

But I also don't think it's the magical answer I ending child poverty that some posters seem to think it is.

There are children in poverty who have parents trying their best and working their hardest but due to circumstances (eg single mums, NMW being a bit shit ti name a few) they struggle to make ends meet, absolutely lifting the cap will help these parents and go a ways to raise those children out of poverty.

But there are also children in poverty because let's face it, their parents are scumbags and don't have their children's interests as priority. Giving those parents more money won't raise the children out of poverty because if you think feeding and clothing the children is what they'll spend it on then you're living in a fantasy land.

As so many other posters have said - but for those who jump to the wrong conclusion - CHILD BENEFIT IS PAID FOR ALL CHILDREN UNLESS THE INCOME OF THE FAMILY IS TOO HIGH.
Going forward from 2018 - the extra money for children born after that year is subject to a cap but only for those on UC.

Another one is Wes going back to Lord Darzi (known as Lord Khazi by all in the medical profession) who has a track record of failure with these big reports......

First of many.

Have you actually looked at the voting figures? “Will of the people”. 🤣

There have been, and always will be, parents who are shit. I don't think there is a way of governmenting them out of it. Without years and years of education anyway. In the interim, the children should be lifted out of that trap, insofar as is possible. I don't know what the answer is.

This.

They want everyone to rely on the government like a slave