First Labour f up

[G123456789]

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

Why is calling for something to change a "fuck up"? It does not mean that this policy will be scrapped. All it means is that some people in the Labour party disagree with it. This was being voiced before the election, in fact it has been a subject of controversy since it was introduced.

How on earth is it a fuck up? It hasn’t yet passed, and Starmer has said it is currently unaffordable. So … ?

These posts to invent digs at Labour are getting really tiresome.

This is a good thing. All the child protection families I work with have 4+ kids. Having another child just when you'll be asked to look for work after the last one is a real phenomenton, and they aren't well looked after.

I can’t get mad about this. A lot of families who claimed ‘tax credits’ for a third child were in full-time work! Often both parents working.

Some women have been faced with the choice to either terminate an unplanned pregnancy or push their family into poverty.

I think it’s interesting that abortion rate has risen and the birth rate has gone down significantly since the policy was introduced

i only have 2 children but don’t begrudge other children not having to live in poverty

Oh and not forgetting the ‘rape clause’ 🤢🤢

Surely that ALONE is enough for the limit to be abolished?

Just grim

If life on benefits is as rosy and fun packed as you paint it, then why not give up your job and spend your days (as well as the shmucks' money) drinking, shagging and smoking your days away. I was on benefits when my child was pre-school, and guess what? it was horrible, I was skint, I was stressed, I was cold and I went hungry.

This is the most sensible statement on this thread, well said @Worried500

@G123456789 If we'd posted like this about tory f-ups when they were in power, we wouldnt have posted anything else!

And in any case it's not a done deal so it's not a f-up is it?

We get child benefit for three kids because twins. It's £20 per week.

If you think £20 comes within a hundred miles of paying the costs to raise a child, let alone incentivising having more, you are more cracked than a cracked egg in a Japanese tea-egg factory.

OP f’d up and won’t be back. Discuss.

Imagine a politicians calling for something that would lift a million children out of poverty. It's almost like the new governing party has some members with a heart.

I'm pro two child cap, we couldn't afford three DC so didn't have three. The state shouldn't have to pay.

As opposed to all the Conservative policies that were implemented just to please millionaires and billionaires.

Presumably they had them before it was capped?

I’m a teacher and one dad that stuck in my mind was jobless, on benefits and up in arms when the cap was introduced yet his young daughter, who was never adequately dressed etc, could describe the latest video game her dad had bought when it had just come out. So sad.

No, it was brought in prospective with over a year's notice.

Also the OP doesn't seem to understand that a minority of MPs - not even in cabinet - are not going to affect policy. They seem to think that it's a fuck up that there's some discussion about child poverty amongst 410 Labour MPs + the Liberals and Greens etc. Pretty sure it's just ordinary democracy.

I think you've got your spoonerism wrong.

Oh Dottie. It's not even going to happen, whether it's a good idea or not. You can stand down and wind your neck in. The PM and the Cabinet make policy - as it is, some backbench MPs are voicing their concerns.

It's not child benefit that the cap has been applied to. This is about UC and working tax credits for 2+ kids. Child benefit hasn't ever been limited to only 2 kids.

Yep

Absolutely
This is a plus for the new government
Thanks for the info.
( I had 2 kids by the way).

It doesn't affect child benefit - when they talk about a 2 child cap, they are talking about people who get universal credit and working tax credits. You can still get child benefit for a third child.

@Hagr1d is that two children UC cap limited to children born after a certain year?

Didn't they just 😀

If the two child limit on receiving UC was lifted, for a third child and for each subsequent child the household would receive approximately £3500 each year (£291 a month).

So if a household has 4 children, they would receive an extra £7000 tax free a year.

A family working and earning £1 above the cut off limit for claiming UC doesn't get to go to their employer(s) and say I have a third and fourth child, so I need a £9000 pay rise to get the equivalent amount.

So this is why in polling more people are supportive of the two child cap for UC.

People who are just getting by without access to state funds will always resent those who have what they don't have, in this case they would have liked more children but due to affordability had to stop at one or two.

So what's the solution that would be acceptable to both sides, that protects the children but doesn't reward the parents? Maybe raise the limit to four children, but the money received for the extra two children should be reduced. Thus showing the parents that they need to take some responsibility as do other parents but providing some support for the children that are here.

Child benefit is means tested but not capped at 2 children. Only child tax credits are capped at 2 children.