Two kids benefit cap

[Youllhatethis]

Good or bad? On the one hand, yes, of course we need children to fund the future or on the other, don’t have more kids than you can afford.

Familiy planning/contraception is free.

I understand why you're saying this, but this is the wrong approach. These parents need to learn how to properly budget etc not have someone do it for them, otherwise the cycle of helplessness and entitlement continues

That's a silly answer. People need to take responsibility by using free contraception, just like people not on universal credit do if they can't afford any more children. If you are saying that people on universal credit are too irresponsible to do that without being forced then they are too irresponsible to be trusted to spend extra money on their children.

But if you had places where they could learn this, then it could go hand in hand. By handing out more money for child 3, 4, 5 etc they are not being taught to budget and all the children are suffering because their parents are forcing them to share resources their parents don't have, and to live in overcrowded situations with no space to learn or break the cycle of poverty.

I think it’s fair, two children is a decent number. I feel if you want afford more then 1/2 why have them. My friend would love more but she can afford one and live a nice comfortable life etc.

How about tax relief for working parents with children? Why does it always have to be the government taking peoples money and giving it to others. Surely it makes sense to make it affordable for working parents as well.

I had my children before the cap. I also had them in a two income household that could afford them. A few years later I was left a single parent. If that cap had applied I would have been really in trouble as my wage wasn't high enough to manage without tax credits.

I don't agree on any restrictions when it comes to society supporting children and I think everyone should still get child benefit. We should be ensuring they are a primary concern as they are the generation that will be looking after us one day.

Yes, because a lot of the time it’s true. Not always but a lot.

So....I was left by my ex husband with 3 small children. I did teacher training. My first mo this salary was less than the childcare I needed to pay.

You can have sympathy but the very stark reality there is that without benefits, I could not have worked.

Yes I agree with you, education is vital. Money shouldn't just be handed out, and sadly the parents in these situations aren't ever putting their children first

People who have additional children to gain benefits are unlikely to be 'producing' productive members of society unfortunately as statistics show

What statistics?

Have you not heard or seen the cycle of poverty/generational poverty first-hand? If you need actual numbers google is your friend. Surely it's just basic to know that someone who can't afford it but chooses to have a child to get more money from the government is doing it for the wrong reasons??!

No, I want you to find me the statiatics that tell me that people on benefits are having children for the benefits, that said benefits are spent on cigarettes, drugs and alcohol and that all these children go on to be less than productive members of society ie never work.

Ok my comment about sterilisation was a bit OTT but the only 100% way to not have a baby is to not have sex.
Accidental pregnancies happen.
So if a couple has the bad luck to have jobs - that despite being full time - are so badly paid they need UC as a top up and they have had their "allowed" 2 children.... should they never have sex again?
It's like the plot of every dystopian novel out there.
Urgh.
What a society.

I do think that women who have a child then have another but that pregnancy is twins or more shouldn't be penalised for having 3+ children.

I see where you are coming from but surely this is just a band aid payment anyway. It’s not going to solve any problems?

lets get the cost of living, affordable housing etc actually sorted out rather than begrudge someone an extra £20 a week for having a third child

I personally prefer to live in a nation where a portion of our enormous societal wealth is used to lift children out of poverty, and I struggle to see the humanity in people who look at children living in poverty and think ‘tough shit, your parents should never have had you’.

Multiple births are exempt from the 2 child cap.

From Gov.UK website:

Multiple births
You can get extra Universal Credit for your third and subsequent children if they are born as part of a multiple birth, apart from one child in that birth. This means the exception applies to the additional children in that birth.
For example, if you’re already getting additional amounts of Universal Credit for 2 existing children, then you have twins, we’ll pay an extra additional child amount of Universal Credit for one of those twins (meaning that in total you’ll be entitled to an amount for 3 out of your 4 children).
Where the first child of the multiple birth is either the first or second child in the household, we’ll pay a child amount for all the children born as part of the multiple birth.

Why is it on the taxpayer to fund you though? Its on your Ex. He still has responsibilites to pay for those children despite leaving, not everyone else.

It's an outdated policy which encourages people to judge those with more than 2 kids.

We now have a demographic crisis and falling birth rates - currently 1.5 for gen Z. We need to be encouraging people to have more kids or our country will be increasingly poor in the future. There will be fewer and fewer workers supporting an aging population.

I had three children I could comfortably afford in what I thought was a secure and stable marriage.

After my children were born I was emotionally abused and eventually assaulted by my husband.

I now can't comfortably afford three children by myself, particularly after spending years on maternity leave and reducing my hours to care for the kids. Choices I made when I had my husband to support me.

None of this is my children's fault. And not all people on Universal Credit are jobless lowlifes who are churning out kids for cash that they spend on drugs and fags and booze.

And how do you propose she forces him to do that?

Do you have any evidence to support that claim?

Very well said @Shielehdie and I agree entirely.

Even if my circumstances had not turned out the way they have, I would still and have always been wholeheartedly against the cap because I don't believe any child should live in poverty, regardless of the circumstances in which they were conceived.

We have a welfare system that acts as a net to protect the most vulnerable in society. Children are some of the most vulnerable in society. There is no way currently to force fathers to pay for their children and the amounts they are meant to pay are often nowhere near enough.