Do you think we should life the two child benefit cap?

[Marshmallow4545]

I believe that the majority of people think that the cap should remain and child poverty should be tackled in different ways.

Personally I would like to see children on FSMs allowed free access to after school extracurricular clubs and activities. I would also provide more poor families with access to food banks and would look to stock these with a range of healthy and nutritious options either through donation or state funding if required. I would also look to recruit volunteers to offer advice on health and diet in these places. I would provide clothing and school uniform banks with high quality, second hand clothing that kids would actually want to wear. I have some branded 'fashionable' stuff my kids have grown out of that's still in great condition that I would happily donate.

All of the above in my view is preferable to lifting the cap and would be more effective in tackling the impact that child poverty has on the child.

So AIBU that the two child cap should remain and we should look at other more direct ways to tackle child poverty?

Yes those families that work 16 hours at national living wage will not be capped.

I grew up on a rough council estate (there were burnt out cars on the green spaces) in the 80s and 90s and there absolutely ARE families where the parents will blow every penny the state gives them. Its incredibly depressing to see. Its a Progressive article of faith that This Never Happens but it does. Which is why I'd rather see the money go into schools, clothes & food vouchers, decent SEND provision and good social / affordable housing.

This would probably go down better.

They are raising the FSM limit to all families on UC from September 2026.

I would like to see people in poverty not having children then bleating the government should pay more to get children out of poverty.

You follow poor people on you tube? There is no way you work. You have far too much time on your hands. Get a job. It will benefit you in the long run. You tube 🤦‍♀️

Money could be taken from else where like the CMS it's not fit for purpose. Theres loads of threads posting on here that either their ex moves jobs, is a higher earn or pays £20 a week its ridiculous.

And it isn't the fault of those children, or indeed their older siblings, if their parents have - for whatever reason - had more children than they can realistically afford. Those children deserve to flourish and thrive as much as any other child deserves to flourish and thrive, and frankly, we need to invest in them so that they don't get stuck in the same poverty trap that has caught their parents.

But throwing money at the parents is short sighted. It's not so much finances as education and opportunity that stops children thriving. My children aren't happy and developing simply because we are moderately well off. Its because we take them to a good preschool, at home we read every day, we model going out to work abd cooking fresh home cooked food. My children go to school full of scrambled eggs or porridge and fruit, not coco pops. They have structure and routine. They visit museums, have swimming and tennis lessons etc etc. Yes money helps with sports lessons and fresh fruit bur I wouldn't be a better parent if you gave me a bit more money.

Motivate these people to glwprk, educate the children, feed them nutritional foods Sotherton aren't overweight and unfit. Learn to cook, budget, play with the children, read, do phonics, get them to school on time and turn off the TV. Invest in services to support families to lift out of poverty. Don't chuck a few pounds at someone and expect it to transform them. It's a lazy approach and counterproductive. Teach a man to fish so to speak.

Any money families do have above a basic amount should be in voucher form so it can be spent on whole foods, not chicken nuggets and breakfast cereal and to ensure it goes on food, utilities, school uniform, transport and books. That ensures money is spent properly on essentials. It helps reduce the monetary poverty and stops children starving, whilst ensuring that benefits are not a free ride.

Um rude much?

I doubt labour will ever be voted in again, declaring this the same week as tax rises will piss a lot of people off, especially with the current public opinion on immigration when most big families are from other countries.
I think a two child cap is reasonable and I say that as someone who was on benefits for years and had a child at 16 (so a complete scrounger 🤣) once or twice fair enough but how did you not learn your lesson the third time??
You can’t expect working taxes payers to fund your platoon of children and not feel resentment, who’s jealous of someone on the dole with a platoon of kids? I’m sure the op could choose to do that herself hell we all could but the economy would crash.
Personally I think free coil fitting centres in every town should be available (I recently found out the place in my town that used to do this has shut and the nearest one is miles away) then there’s no excuse and before you mention twins, twins have always been exempt from this policy

@Pumpkinallspiceit is a lot easier to have the headspace to read, cook meals from scratch, research and attend extra curricular groups etc etc if you’re slightly less stressed about where the next meal is coming from/ how to pay the bills.

😂

Ha good for you

You have me torn between principles and pragmatism OP. Because while my principles rail strongly against forcing disadvantaged people to rely on the charity of the more fortunate, and the thought of less well off people being patronised with cooking lessons and privileged people's cast offs; the pragmatist in me sees that this may well be more helpful to some children living in poverty than a few extra quid in their parents pocket.
However, I'm no expert on child poverty, and those that are feel strongly the cap should be lifted. So I'm happy to bow to their greater knowledge acquired from decades of research on this.

Maybe we should campaign for both?

I wasn't aware, thank you. I'm glad.

It doesn't matter whether we agree with it or not, Labour are going to Labour and do whatever they want anyway, whether it breaks election promises or not. There is however a ray of sunshine, Starmer said they will drop the cap when the economic situation allows. The economy must be doing really well then, that must surely mean taxes don't need to go up, right, Sir Keir?

Same as the improvement in the economy (no one else was aware of it mind you) that allowed Starmer to U turn on Winter Fuel Allowance.

@Kirbert2 whilst I think this a good move and should happen, I feel let down. Many years scraping together the pack lunches from what was in the cupboard, going without lunch myself and making sure my girls had theirs because I was just over the threshold for fsm. I worked all week and I worked nights when they went to their dads to get overtime rate.
I don’t believe the two cap should be lifted but this is a move I am in favour of

Oh yeah, FSM was at a ridiculously low limit when it moved over from tax credits. I bet a lot of people feel the same way as you.

My son will be Year 6 from next September so would just sneak in for his last primary year but we do a packed lunch due to his limited diet.

Same!

Yes it should be lifted

why do children need to go without we are not a poor country we are a country where wealth is poorly distributed

Probably for another thread but I think it should be funded. Being a parent who parents full time. It’s better for the children. Rather than letting strangers parent them. Dropping them off first thing then picking them up last thing and putting them to bed isn’t parenting imo.

See below

@Differentforgirls. Wow. Parenting is hard and working mums make a hard choice to leave their children when they go to work.
it is parenting.

It won’t be a hard choice for the benefit bashers amongst them though. They’ll be just fine leaving their children to go to work. So at least there’s that.

I don’t think it was tbh. The years when I job shared and spent 4.5 days a week with my children were the funniest, most satisfying days of my life. Never a dull moment. I laughed every day. There were times I had to go and count to 100 to deal with their wee moods but I was pretty skint but happy 😊