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.

So? We can’t afford for them not to work 🤷‍♀️

Then there needs to be enough work to go round.

How many people with autism are in paid work?
A lot of the barriers are employers, not their autism.

Change that first before blaming them.

The jobs market is also dire for people with qualifications, experience, and no disabilities. Where are all the jobs that disabled people are meant to be doing?

Exactly! But that's all being smart geniuses apparently, if it's allowed they're just being smart, they don't have a moral responsibility to pay tax for the sake of it. But the single mum claiming benefits because she has to work part time has a moral duty, she shouldn't have had kids 🙄 It's apparently despicable for someone who would barely feel the benefit of upping their hours and stopping their UC claim, what they're doing s playing the system and have a moral duty to be rest of us but when you're rich and play the system to your benefit that's just smart.

This thread is going to fill up soon.

If anyone wants to continue the discussion I have created a new thread:

The 2 child benefit cap lift will be cancelled out by the weekly benefit cap - discussion continued | Mumsnet

Well I do know a little about tax planning. We all know good tax planning can minimise exposure. But the idea that successive governments particularly this one haven't closed most loopholes is for the birds.

One interesting thought is that many people who leave money to children who claim means tested benefits leave their inheritance in discretionary trusts so the child's benefits arent jepodised by receipt of money. What do you think of that? Benefits should be stopped shouldn't they,?

I am a bit docked for your plain ableism here . What do you suggest the government does to those ? Because care outside the family would cost easily 100x

and workplaces need to accept reasonable adjustments as well as colleagues.

The same people moaning about autistic people on benefits not working also seem to be the ones who moan about reasonable adjustments for autistic people in the workplace.

And what message is that mother sending out to her kid! She is telling the kid that living on benefits and not working is his future! And some people just aren't getting how this is spiralling! Everybody wants their kid to be diagnosed as on some sort of spectrum these days, it didn't used to be like this!

And yet 1% of high earners pay 30% of income tax. 5% (including this 1%) pay HALF of it.

so you have 95% of earners who contribute as much as top 5% “rich people”, and then 10% of population or so on benefits

But of course it’s the rich people fault that we are running out of money

Or they post on AIBU about being served in a shop by someone who didn't make eye contact or lacked stellar customer service skills.

Unfortunately Rachel Reeves and Angela Raynor have acted detrimentally to the chances of disabled people in the workplace. Employers are far less likely to take a chance on a disabled employee. Very sad.

Nobody objects to reasonable adjustments.
which are different from PIP

You've clearly missed some threads on here. Some people absolutely object to reasonable adjustments.

For the love of god, earners are WORKERS. The people being references are not EARNERS they are not earning their money. You are either being deliberately obtuse or you are extremely naive. The exact reason they get away with this is people like you thinking when people are talking about taxing the rich or the wealthy that we mean people earning high salaries.

I never said there wasn’t an issue, and as for lecturing me on calmness when most of your sentences end with exclamation marks... 😂

Your post is far more ‘dramatic’ than mine. But OK then, —quite apart from the subjective, unproven hyperbole in your post— what solution would you propose for the issue of there being fewer jobs to go around than there are people with disabilities who are able to do those jobs? I’m all ears.

Continuation thread here:

The 2 child benefit cap lift will be cancelled out by the weekly benefit cap - discussion continued | Mumsnet

Well, lots of people on MN seem to.

Go on provide any evidence of that claim that many people on benefits have an inheritance held in trust.

She is not sending that message to her kid at all. Why are you making that up?
She had her kid assessed so she could access help for them. She still has days where she has to pick her child up from school because they are not coping there and is expected to do that at the drop of a hat. How can she hold down a job in that scenario?

Her husband actually works and supports them anyway.

Completely agree.

Lots more births to englush as a econd language speakers on a maternity ward near you

Can you cite some evidence of this? The thing is there are plenty of people who are neuro diverse in workplaces including mine without issue or much need for adjustment. You are trying to turn it into a big disability when it isn't and nobody complains about any adaptations in the workplace anyway!

How convenient.