Getting paid £3513.72 tax free per year for each 3rd, 4th or more child if on UC

[WishingIwasyoungerandslimmer]

Is this really reasonable? For those working and just missing the eligibility criteria for Universal Credit, is it fair to them?

When would anyone working and just gettig by, be able to get an additional take home pay amount of £3513.72 per year for each child that you have? Have three children? Here's £10541.16. Got 4? That's £14054.88 . Have 5? Here's £17568.60. These figures are tax free amounts so the extra pay needed will be a lot more.

Did those calling for the two child cap to be lifted not understand the amounts of money that will be handed out if lifted?

Doesn't it just disincentivise parents from moving off Universal Credit into work or for those in work to try and get better paid jobs?

Isn't it a slap in the face for couples having to limit their family size to one or two children and to have to both work full time to support them through paid labour and paying taxes?

Surely if the government felt forced to scrap the two child cap, why not instead have reduced rates for each subsequent child? Apart from food, other costs will be less as the each new child has the use of older siblings old clothes, baby equipment etc.

The two child cap was popular for the majority of the country. It was popular with those that would have liked to have more children but cannot afford to do on the wages/salary they receive. Now over the next few years as it gets harder and harder to get by for those in work but not receiving benefits, the resentment will grow and grow. While those recipients of the UK's welfare state's largesse are saying, thank you very much, no need now for me to try and find work or work harder.

The Green party deputy leader was gloating with joy about this on Twitter and his voters are elated at all the extra income to their households.

Except for the fact that abortion rates significantly increased among women with two existing children, with the two child cap being cited as a significant factor in the decision to end the pregnancy.

The child benefit cap does not prevent adults from making poor decisions. It will never reduce the amount of children some people choose to have. The reasons people have more children than they can afford in not ideal circumstances are very complex.

All it has ever done is punish children. Children should not carry the burden of poverty and be punished for the choices of their parents.

People moaning about 'handouts' to the poor don't seem to be able to reflect that it is incredibly difficult to break the poverty cycle and to climb the social ladder. I just can't fathom begrudging children things like free school meals, and an extra £50 or whatever it is a week. You are already at a significant disadvantage in life if you are born into a poor socioeconomic background. It is one of the biggest predictors of things like health outcomes, educational outcomes, and so on.

Wow, there's some broad stereotyping about people on low incomes there.
Maybe people on low incomes are not in a position to invest their money, but perhaps they spend it on clothing, or food, or their homes.

I think it was unwise to lift the cap completely. If she wanted to lift it at all, which I don’t agree with it, then she should have capped it at 4 imo.

People need to take responsibility for themselves. DS2 & DDIL have one child. They’re both nurses and own their own home but are trying to work out if they can afford another one or not. That’s what everyone should be doing before they have children.

And yes, I know circumstances can change. That happened to me. I became disabled and unable to work. If we’d have had more than 2 kids we’d have gone under.

I'd rather see more money going into schools and other ways it is targeted directly at the children rather than going to the parents where they can spunk it all on vapes and manicures

Won't Mia have to look for work once the youngest child turns 3?

Not now... She can just pop out another child instead.... And then their house will be overcrowded and she'll get a priority place on the waiting list for a big council house. ...

She can have another child now, to stay out of work.

You really think there are going to be thousands of parents having 5,6,7 children just to be able to claim benefits for life?

The solution to this is bursting the housing bubble and the government building a shit ton more social housing and/or rental controls to stop the cost of living spiralling out of control or being unaffordable for people working. The problem isn’t the mansion tax it’s that a ‘nice house in a nice area’ costs £2million in some places. That is an insane price. I’m sure it’s benefitted those that bought years ago and have watched the value of their property go up and up and up but I can’t see that it’s benefitted anyone else.

Fundamentally the issue this country has and is trying to solve is that the difference between those at the top and those at the bottom has grown and grown over the last decade. And those at the bottom are much worse off than they were. Either you solve this by increasing wages at the bottom in a way that doesn’t cause inflation or give a helping hand to those at the bottom through additional payments or making the costs of basics like housing and everyday expenses cheaper. And that is going to have to be paid for somehow.

People with disabled children are unlikely to go rushing out to have more kids just so they can explore that fact, have you any idea the impact of raising a child with a disability? Providing constant care or dealing with a life threatening medical condition is exhausting.

I think they have only crunched half of their numbers here. UC tapers. Assuming those are the figures before the minimum wage upgrade, then they will lose some UC at whatever the taper rate is once the minimum wage goes up. At which point it would become less than the take home wage on 35hrs minimum wage and I’d imagine that if Mia was also working 35hrs on minimum wage they may be entitled to some UC.

Children are not mandatory!
I know I won't be popular for my opinion, but I don't think anyone should have children if they can't afford them, it's totally irresponsible.
Why should I, as a tax payer, fund someone else churning out kids they can ill afford to have, then start bleating on about how they struggle? It makes no sense at all.
I have never understood child benefit if I'm honest, as over the years I've heard many women saying they can't wait for the payment to go in, so they can go get their nails or lashes done, or get the nice coat they've seen. How does that benefit a child?!
The whole thing needs scrapping to my mind.

They are not mandatory but they are essential to a continued functioning of society and the country if we are also going to be annoyed at immigration being a thing.

Contraceptive manufacturers must be livid that sexual habits will now change due to the two child cap being lifted, at least, according to loons on the internet anyway.

Housing would be very cheap if there were 20 million less people, it seems high Abortion levels and assistance suicide are preferred to deportations.

It was popular with the majority of working non-benefit claiming families who had to limit themselves to one or two children, that is, if they could afford any at all.

It was unpopular with those claiming benefits who were not not working or doing the bare miminum of hours paid work, who wanted more children despite being on benefits. Also, popular with the MPs who believed that these people were more likely to support them at the ballot box if they shouted enough in Parliament about the unfairness of a reasonable policy.

It was also unpopular with those in "naice" areas who don't have to live next door to non working benefit recipients enjoying a near similar lifestyle but not "earning" it like their working non-benefit receiving neighbours. People who are are going to work, scraping by and having to make hard choices in many areas of their life that they didn't have to do before.

It's even more galling that the "Labour Party", the supposed party to champion people who labour at work, don't see the alienation and disillusionment their policies are causing to upper working class and lower middle class incomes.

Definitely. Sounds like the rent in that example is about £1k per month.

Lifting children out of poverty, the bastards.

You’re confusing Child Benefit with Universal credit. The cap applied to Universal Credit payments based on dependents, only the first two dependent children were taken into account.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/us/politics/trump-rubio-mass-migration.html

This is going to put the cat amongst the pigeons after the Budget.

If I was one of the 20 million Trump is talking about I would be selling my property at the top of the market and going home.

I wonder if he will send ICE in here and the army in to literate, in a few years?

I am guessing he will go for Canada first due to the over represention of white people killed there with MAID. There is huge BRICS national expansion going on there.

He has South Africa from BRICS already excluded from meetings, he made his thoughts clear to Russia/China/Iran, he would need lots of manufacturing in the USA before he tackles Indian expansion.

Hmm... I thought it wasn't just those on benefits who will receive the allowance for child 3 and onwards, those who work will get it too cos it's not means tested - though those who earn over the threshold won't get it, but family earnings at that stage are a far amount (£80k before it sets to zero).

Happy to be enlightened by more learned Mumsnetters if I've misunderstood this...

Children from 4x4 career workshy women are not really contributing to a functioning society. At least the immigrants are trying to contribute, legally or not.

Their parents could lift them out of poverty by going out to work.