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.

Her whole house doesnt get paid for only the part that is rented.

You have said yourself she has purchased a percentage outright using her divorce settlement.

And on the rented part it will only be based on her circumstances - what she earns, local housing allowance, children and required number of bedrooms.

Shared ownership has strict affordability checks in place which take into account all types of income.

I would say your friend has probably been quite sensible to secure stable housing which could be cheaper than UC paying the rent for a whole privately let property.

It's inevitable. The longer we leave it, the worse it will get. Best to make the harsh but necessary changes now rather than kicking the can down the road for future generations to deal with.

You might be surprised to learn that I don't give a flying shit whether you consider my vocabulary sufficiently contemporary. But nice attempt to deflect from what I was actually saying.

Ah got you.

So you’ll know that specific response was sarcasm.

But generally, yes, I have an issue with the government taking more of my money against my will, to give to other people to have more babies and not work. I am starting to wonder why anyone would actually bother working.

But I’m supposed to happily hand over my taxes; because that’s a ‘nice’ thing to do.

I couldn’t care less what you think of my posts. It’s quite reassuring to me that many hard working taxpayers are waking up to this unfairness.

Why does noone look up?

Massive corporations, conglomerates, the pyramid scheme that is pensions and finance. Those are what are taking your money.

It's not the people.

Support each other or you'll lose everything.

It doesn't feel like most of them work! I don't mind helping low income working families to have top.up bit what I don't want to pay for all the so called single mothers who have lots of kids and a daddy that's laughing whilst we pay to feed abs house his kids! I would like stricter classification on what passes as a disability and needs money! Someone who is able to.work without issue doesn't need a pip payment just for the sake of it, people cannot just sit at home claiming anxiety and depression as though sitting at home is a cure!.they need to work. And mothers need to stop labelling so many kids as disabled! The future is bleak if this doesn't change!

PIP claimants who are working still have to pay tax on their salaries too. Just saying.

Why do I need to support serial breeders that never work a day in their lives?

For the same reason people support you.

Totally agree. It's the total unfairness that gets to people.

That sounds like a nightmare. I really hope your cousin doesn’t put you through that kind of thing often. I’m curious though. Given your experiences with your family, do you find yourself feeling a mix of gratitude for the benefits system, while also recognizing that it can be misused by some people, and unfortunately often is?

How do we know that the extra benefits are actually spent on the children?

Totally agree - there seems to be a naivete among people - especially the left leanings ones that absolutely no one is scamming the system.

This is one of the reason why Labour have lost the formerly reliable working-class vote. Being told that "benefit fraud is rare" by people who know nothing about it, while personally knowing that it is rife amongst people in their own community.

Omg - yes there are people scamming 'the system'. Some are doing it a lot and some of them are doing it a little. You are focusing all your energies on them little ones, while the big ones sit back and laugh at you.

She’s stopped now. Juvenile perhaps because we are in our 30’s, I told her dad (my uncle). He may well be financially supporting her now, but she’s his daughter.

My own father, I went NC with when I was 21. It was my part time job income I was buying his whisky out of.

I’m grateful for it because we were a low income family, my father did work (informally) but spent it all in the pub. He then left when I was 8 and paid zero maintenance.

My mum wouldn’t have been able to feed us without the support we received, the FSM etc. She’s now got 3 functioning and successful children, all in at least relatively high paying jobs. Not one of us would have been able to push to get to where we are without the state support we received as children.

I’m also grateful for it because I’ve got a disabled child and he will need support from someone for the rest of his life. We won’t always be here. I’d like there to be a supportive system for him to fall back on.

The system is misused and abused, like I made perfectly clear myself. But having been one of the children taxpayers fed when my family were in a real tough spot, I now pay back in and have no issue with it going back to families like ours.

I’d like to see unemployment tackled, people who can work and choose not to. I’d like cash in hand work clamping down on.

But some people aren’t taking the piss, and those people (and certainly their kids!) need the support of those of us who can fund it.

There were higher rates of unemployment under thatcher and Cameron btw.

People are VERY selective with their memories.

PIP needs a massive overhaul. It’s not means tested so you can have a situation where someone on an annual salary of £1 million could be receiving it. Apparently so people working on PIP don’t have to dip into their wages to pay for their ‘counselling’ or health care, so those working for a low salary can have the pleasure of supporting their care instead. It needs to be means tested, and the money they need for care paid to the counsellors and health care providers direct.

Respectfully, your feelings are irrelevant to the stats and facts. Many benefits claimants are actually employed.

I do aagree it's best to get people into work

Thank you for sharing you story.

I do think it’s very important to hear stories like yours and how families can thrive after receiving state support.

I agree, not everyone is abusing the system and I do feel the benefits system should be appreciated to help those in need.

100 per cent right. When is the Labour party going to wake up to this.

How many people earning £1million or so are claiming PIP? Without those figures, how can you say it is really a problem?

The people I know that work and claim PIP are only able to work because they claim PIP.

Any particular reason why you chose to put ‘counselling’ in quotes?

Completely agree.

I know colleagues who are single parents with children at secondary school who reduce their hours as their salary is topped up with UC to what they earned working full time. It’s madness. How can you choose to give up full time employment and work part time knowing the state will supplement your income?

With PIP I do think it needs a review as it’s not sustainable to pay so much to so many people. I have a friend who claims due to MS (with a lot of physical issues) and gets the higher rate - she works 3 days a week but is physically unable to work more and so of course she should be supported. Others I know of are blatantly milking the PIP system and it needs to dealt with and people to stop pretending it’s not an issue.

Unless welfare spending is brought under control, taxes for the middle/higher earners will continue to increase, the economy will suffer as they’re not spending and then who will pay for the ever increasing benefits.

DLA and PIP are rightly not means tested. Without DLA my husband wouldn’t have been able to work, have a clean home, feed himself. He was paying around £1,200 a month in total purely due to being disabled. He was able to save about £50 a week. So under your idea to save money you’d rather the was unemployed and on a far higher level of benefits.