AIBU to think parents on benefits shouldn’t be allowed to have more children until they’re financially independent?

[Tellitasitisss]

I can’t help but wonder why people who are already on benefits are still choosing to have more children. Surely if you can’t afford to support the children you already have, it’s unfair (on the kids and taxpayers) to keep adding more into the mix?

I’m not talking about people who’ve fallen on hard times unexpectedly, or someone who loses their job. That can happen to anyone. I mean those who have never worked a day in their life, keep having baby after baby, and then expect everyone else to fund everything from housing to school meals.

Meanwhile, working households who are just scraping by get absolutely nothing, yet are footing the bill for those who keep expanding their families with no thought for the consequences.

AIBU to think there should be a cap — no more kids funded by benefits after the first two, unless you can afford them yourself? Or is that “punishing children” like people always say?

Women are already having more abortions due to financial reasons

Abortion were at their highest w
2022. This marked the highest number of reported abortions since records began, with 252,122 procedures, a 17% increase on previous year

Official data for the entire UK in 2023 is not yet available, but projections and partial data indicate a continued trend of increasing abortion rates across the UK. In Scotland, there was a 10% increase in 2023, and a 28% increase in Northern Ireland, while England and Wales data is delayed, likely due to the 2022 record high in total numbers. The cost of living crisis and limited access to contraception are cited as contributing factors to the high demand for abortions in recent years.

Cost of Living Crisis:
The financial pressures of the cost of living crisis played a major role, with 57% of women surveyed by Bpas attributing financial factors to their decision.

I got pregnant after the morning after pill...can happen ( i was young). But dd is doing amazing and I now work FT for nhs although I did have benegits at first.
I did stop at one though due to cist. Life on benefits was not fun and kids are v expensive.

Oh, I'm sure one or two posters will be happy to combine them.

Benefits*
Cost*

Sorry for typos

Very interesting that the OP said "PARENTS" yet about 90% of the comments are talking about women giving birth...can we not think about how we stop the men?

Quite. OP needs an updated guide to UK benefits briefing sheet IMHO.

This is absolute bull. Nhs website says that no contraception is 100% effective. I was an 'accident' when my mum was on the pill. It happens all the time even when people are being careful!

How do you suggest they police this? What about the families who culturally don't believe in contraception?
Personally I think it is crazy that the governments fund certain families from the cradle until college.

How are you proposing this is prevented? State sanctioned sterilisation? Mandatory implant with a fine if you don't do it?

The reasons people have children they can't afford are very complex. If you want to prevent this, have a good long think about a solution to social deprivation, lack of education, barriers to healthcare, generational trauma, etc. There is not a quick fix.

All removing benefits does is punish children. It is not the fault of children, who haven't asked to be born into less than ideal circumstances.

people with disabilities? older people? is this going to go full on master race?

How would you police this?

While I agree with you in principal, in the long run, no, it's not a good idea; We are heading towards an aging population, we're not close to the problem that Japan has but we need people to be making babies so there is a future workforce.

Statistics show that wealthier and better educated families tend to have less children than people receiving benefits - if only wealthy educated families had children then there'd be a smaller workforce and they'd all be competing for the fewer specialised jobs.

Unfortunately we need these "spongers" so that we don't have a massive employment gap in certain industries in the future.

Not sure I don't support that - for fathers who don't pay for their children. Half the problem imo.

And now there is the heavily subsidised childcare that you can get with a household income of £198k... So, if they were savvy, two parents on £159k could drop £60k into pensions per annum (each) and still get £1200 per month from the government... Per child. They could of course have as many children as they like...

I totally agree that nobody should be having more children than they can afford to support, but there is just literally no way this could ever be policed in reality.

🍿

Imagine if men knew that if they created more than one family they'd get state sanctioned snip. I wonder if it would change their minds about cheating, bigamy and child maintenance avoidance?

Not really, the same ethical issues would crop up if a woman's circumstances hadn't changed and she got pregnant again.

There will always be people feeding the trolls.

It's more important to call them out directly.

I don't think it would be enforced on men since (generally speaking) they are bigger and put up more of a fight, it's easier to overpower and dominate women so they would be the ones to have forced medical procedures

How are you going to stop them having more kids?

Feels like a solid bet OP will not be back.

How would you stop them though? And people can become unemployed unexpectedly and have to claim benefits after they have had their children or got pregnant with another child. Are you saying those children should be taken into care OP? I don’t agree with that at all. I think there are a lot of people who are playing the system and it is a very real issue that needs addressing, but there are a lot of families who are on benefits through no fault of their own and they need support, not the threat of having children removed.

As others have already pointed out there is two child cap on the child component of Universal Credit.

Now to the practicalities. I am asking the following:

1. How would this be enacted/enforced? Compulsory sterilisation, compulsory implants, IUDs,? Would you have a Contraception Force going door to door with a list of the fecekless and fertile or would you make proof of contraception part of the benefit application process
2. What do you deem as an acceptable income and what happens if someone's circumstances change (it can happen you know) and their income drops below the designated acceptable level?

I don't think OP is particularly interested in facts. They'd only get in the way of all the benefit-bashing fun.