The 2 child benefit cap lift will be cancelled out by the weekly benefit cap

[Pinkbowls]

I keep seeing all this talk about families with 6+ kids “racking it in” if the two-child benefit cap is lifted, and honestly, it’s hogwash. Here’s the reality:

If the Labour government does lift the two-child cap, it will mainly help low-income working families and families who are claiming disability benefits. These households aren’t subject to the cap, so the poorest families and those who genuinely need extra support for a third or fourth child are the ones who will benefit.

For a single adult with two children outside London, the monthly benefit cap is around £1,832 (~£423 per week). In London, it’s higher, about £2,108 per month (~£486 per week).

Now let’s break it down roughly for someone renting privately:

• Assume the standard allowance + personal allowance for the adult + child elements (for 2 kids) = around £1,200–£1,300/month.
• Private rent in many parts of the UK, and especially in London, can easily eat £800–£1,200/month.
• Add council tax support (which helps a bit, but only partially) and you can see that most of the cap is already taken up.

So in reality, lifting the two-child cap doesn’t suddenly create a pile of extra cash. For families on benefits but below the cap, the extra child element for a third or fourth child may only leave a modest amount after rent and council tax.

The idea that parents with 6+ children will suddenly be sitting on a fortune is completely overblown. The system is designed so that the support goes to those who genuinely need it, not to families already comfortably above the threshold.

The main winners of this policy will be:

• Low-income working families who are earning enough to be under the cap and can actually receive the child element for additional children.
• Families claiming disability benefits, who aren’t subject to the cap at all.

It’s important to separate myths from reality: this is about helping the most vulnerable and supporting working families, not about rewarding large families for being on benefits.

We need more people to be having DC that are going to be positive contributors to society.
There's a big difference.
I've lived on council estates and there were three generations in maybe one house who have never worked.
That's not the way to a sustainable society. 🤷‍♂️

You can work and claim PIP.

PIP helps people who work stay in work in lots of cases.

What makes you assume 'these people' aren't working?

Sorry in most places in the world people have to take care of their family members for better or worse. Not expect tax payers to do it. It is lucky that there is so much support provision in this country for people who have various special needs. Yes, being a carer is difficult, I have done it for my grandparents when they were old and suffering dementia. But there was no other choice so I got on with it along with my studies and other things. People need to realise taking care of your children/ d parents etc. is your own responsibility and not others. Yes, it is great support is provided by the government here but why are people so ungrateful!

Fewer jobs than people needing jobs still equals some people being out of work. It's incredibly insulting, not to mention naive, to assume those struggling to find work just need to 'up their game'.

It’s the same as working fulltime on minimum wage without having to work!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5442318-get-britain-working-is-totally-missing-the-current-employment-crisis-economy?page=1

😂😂😂

You've never been in the position of having to rely on benefits, have you?

Lol as if they are getting the same as the high earner.

Absolutely. But some people just don't want to hear it.

Well yes. But if you’re a parent of a child who cannot attend school for any longer than an hour, or an adult who doesn’t have any services to access…

Where are you leaving them while you go to work? I don’t think you can take them.

Or, how are you feeding them if you can’t work because they need supervision?

It’s all well and good saying people shouldn’t rely on the state, but those people can’t be both at work and completing their caregiving responsibilities at home. They’re SENd parents/caregivers, not magicians.

If everyone is special, nobody is.

This thread makes me feel horrible. I have four children and I am subject to the benefit cap so all lifting it will do for me is make the general public hate me even more, wrongly believing I am taking more benefits while I continue to struggle.

The first one was in her 70s.

I can’t remember the circumstances of the second now but I do know she desperately didn’t want to be stuck in that situation, it wasn’t through choice.

Wrong.

See my earlier posts.

The example I used was MY family- assuming I had no savings, was working 16hrs per week, renting in London, 3 kids (GB where GB are twins).. no disability. I used 'entitled to' website. The benefits plus NMW was equal to the take home of a salary of £82k. Check it out for yourself.

See, sounds like you were like me- thinking noooo, surely not. But yup. According to that website, yup.

If we pay people to have children with no responsibility for earning the money to bring them /up we will end up with a society where the mega rich have 4-5 kids -the workers in the middle will have 1 -(2 if they can afford nursery etc )and the people on the unlimited benefit cap have 4-5 .If those children grow up seeing that it’s a lifestyle choice not to work -who will be working :paying tax in the future ?

That's fucking insane. Poor children.

Gosh, if only we had all known the solution to unemployment was so simple. Who knew all an unemployed person had to do was 'get' a job! steps back in amazement

You just totally showed your own ignorance (or possibly bigotry, I'm not sure) there in assuming if someone hasn't a job it must be because they can't be bothered getting one. Pathetic.

But you are though! Perhaps show a bit of gratitude to the benefits you’re getting in the first place. Try the benefits system in another country if you’re not happy.

The proportion of kids with SEN entitled to disability benefits is small. Many people have kids with SEN needs that have an impact on their ability to work (and they aren’t entitled to any additional support. If they’re struggling with school attendance for example it can become impossible to hold down a job because you’re seen as unreliable.

If I were on minimum wage, I'd feel like a mug. I never understood why benefits in the UK are tax-free either.

ND isn’t “any sort of problem.”

There’s no guarantee your second child would have autism, and we’re getting into eugenics/value of life if we did start somehow banning people from having ND children.

But you've contradicted yourself, as I support protection for all people with physical and mental illnesses and OCD and chronic migraines fall into that category. But you've been dismissive of people claiming benefits for anxiety, which can be - I imagine - as debilitating as OCD. You clearly feel unwell and find work exhausting, that's understandable. But don't attack others who are also disabled - and I include by mental health conditions - because you've opted to work and they haven't.

A lot of adults get diagnosed with ADHD/ASD after having a child with the same.
They were not knowingly having SEN kids at all.