Labour are lifting the 2 child benefit cap

[PuppyKeep]

AIBU that this is a terrible decision?

I don't think people realise that council housing was never built to allow people to sit and not work, it used all occupied by workers on a lower income and the people on these estates had pride for them and built a decent community.

37% of universal credit claimants are in work.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-9-january-2025/universal-credit-statistics-29-april-2013-to-9-january-2025

But a lot of people in council housing back then did work, not like it is now where if you went on a council estate most people wouldn't be working and their would be feral kids hanging around.

Indeed. I was responding specifically to a poster who was suggesting that there was little unemployment in the 80s, which is simply not true.

So the minority then. The rest aren't in work so that's 63% percent.

How many of the 37% don't do overtime and don't apply for higher paid jobs because it would affect they universal credits? How many of these families has only one working parent and the other out of work?

Not the gotcha you think it is.

You tell me! Why have we got all these single mothers with huge families that never ever mention a dad! They'll get knocked up every couple of years yet there's never a dad! The taxpayer's pay for everything! The lads obviously grow up start knocking someone up in their teens and then hide in the shadows to let mum get full benefits!

Those families existed in the 70s and 80s too - my extended family was one of them! I do know exactly the world you're talking about - I haven't lived it, but I've lived in parallel with it. But I also see another section of society where the wealth sloshing around is UNREAL. I have a foot in each and I can see that wealth is not distributed fairly in this country. It is sick that we are bickering about a bit of extra money for families to turn the heating on (or possibly - you never know - perhaps some of them will buy an extra vape...) when there is so much inadequately taxed wealth in this economy.

WE ARE LOOKING AT THE WRONG PEOPLE.

The threshold to get disability benefit is extremely high. I have a child with fairly mild neurodivergence and it is tough. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for families where one or more child has severe ADHD. There are different levels of these things, and it sounds like the people you know are lucky to not be too severely impacted. Again - I'm sure if we looked we could find multiple examples of people "using" things like ADHD as excuses. But the fact those examples exist does not negate the fact that most people in receipt of disability benefits desperately need them.

There is such moral outrage when someone scams a few hundred in benefits. I don't understand why there isn't the same degree of outrage when the wealthy sidestep hundreds of thousands in tax they should be paying. In both cases, you're taking money from the system that you're not entitled to. Why is one vilified and the other given a free pass?

Oh I'm pissed off with the wealthy who are taking the piss just as much as the scroungers.

You've really got to be pissed off the with the 1% paying for 30% of the country's needs.

You can't just deal with one and not the other, tax payers who are stuck in the middle deserve both elements to be dealt with - not only but I dread to think what society will be like in ten years from now because it's degenerating so badly because of people being raised with no discipline or morals, the public facing sectors in such as like retail and banking are struggling to cope with the levels of abuse they get now.

Quote and most of them don’t even use any of the services

Erm, I am pissed off!

You're pissd off with the people who pay majority of tax in the country in order to fund benefits etc?
The top 10% pay 60% of all tax receipts.

• In 2024-25, the top one per cent of income tax payers earned 13.3 per cent of total income and paid 28.2 per cent of income tax. This is up from 22.7 per cent in 2005-06, a full 20 financial years ago.
• This means the top one per cent of income tax earners paid 2.1 times their share of income taxes in 2024-25, up from 1.9 times two decades ago.
• The top ten per cent of income tax payers earned 35.1 per cent of total income in 2024-25 and paid 60.2 per cent of income tax, up from 52.9 per cent in 2005-06.
• 35.6 per cent of the adult population paid no income tax at all in 2023-24

Get them out and all that. Whoops.

I'm in the top half of the 1%, don't use many of the services my taxes fund, but I would happily pay more to help those who do.

You say that like it's a bad thing?! Yes, those earning the top 1% should pay a higher proportion.

If only people would pay more voluntarily for each post along these lines.

I’m in the 37%. I am significantly better off working full time than I was part time. The UC system is designed to make sure that people are always better off working and working more.

I wish people wouldn’t make ignorant comments about a system they know nothing about

Is there a mechanism in place for doing so?

How selfish of them. Maybe you want them to stop working and live on benefits?

Of course there is. HMRC voluntary contributions scheme.

Spurious argument - that's not how taxation works. In the US, there's a culture of voluntary philanthropy rather than enforced taxation, and look how that's going...

There’s quite a few of you on mn who post they want to pay more. Feel free.

It's not spurious. You claim you would happily pay more tax, well then do it otherwise it's just virtue signalling. You want to pay more tax, then do it.

Thanks. Honestly didn’t know that.