Angry at scrapping of 2 child limit

[BearBuggy]

I know there are a few families that find themselves in rotten circumstances and this isn’t aimed at them . However I live in an area where having children to continue to receive benefits was the norm and only now the cap is in place has that stopped.

The Scottish government has now announced it will be scrapped. I am so angry I’m paying towards people breeding children they can’t afford. I didn’t vote SNp this time because of this, as did many of my friends. They lost heavily in my area but still seem to not care what the tax payer is saying.

Our fertility rate is already below replacement. We have a record number of people with fertility issues and a record number of people opting not to have children. I think the odd family having 3 kids is meant to balance that out.

It shouldn't be lifted past 3.

Sadly it's the feckless layabouts who play the system who ruin it for everyone else.

Most working professionals aren't having lots of kids

And the millions of people we import every year.

There would be even more if our birth rate drops further.

Are you really so lacking in vision that you cannot see how children born when an informed decision was that they could be afforded all changed when, eg, the Father was suddenly permanently incapacitated.

It's because of people who think like you that Osborne thought this was a winner.

In Alaska they reversed child obesity by introducing a universal basic income so there is real evidence that equality improves the health and lives of children. They’re always the ones to suffer.

Yes, it is relative poverty that is 30%.

In 2022/23 the number of children living in absolute poverty rose from 23% to 25%, the highest increase since 2018 due to soaring inflation.

What's the Barnet formula?

Labour are NOT in charge in Scotland.

SNP are. For the next 18 months until the next Scottish parliament election. This is just grandstanding by the SNP, you'd think someone has crunched the numbers and worked out that actually getting rid of the cap won't cost as much as people think it will, and it's a good "look" for them. Headline grabbing. And it won't be implemented for X months and the budget still has to be voted through and so on and so on.

But by making headlines talking about the 2 child cap, we're not talking about the ongoing fraud investigation and charges against Sturgeon's husband, or motorhomes, or ferries which are 8 years late into service and millions over budget, or schools falling to bits, or overcrowded prisons, or slipping education standards etc etc etc.

Child benefit should be available for every child, no one knows anyone’s full circumstances. Many children/mothers need it.

I’m happy to see the 2 child limit remain in England.
Let’s see the effect it has before lobbying for the same.
I don’t agree with the 2 child limit but it’s there for a reason.
It’s horrendous that honest people who find themselves on benefit, through no fault of their own, are suffering because some people just don’t want to work.
The past government has been pathetic at enforcing their own rules when it comes to work and I very much doubt this government will be any better.
People can’t main about immigration if they can’t be bothered to fill the vacancies available.

With that and partially reinstating the WFP, I am fed up. Where is the money for this? Yes that is right, even relatively low to middle income earners pay more tax and with fiscal drag it is getting so much worse. It makes me sick my daughter who is a nurse pays more tax in Scotland than she would in England, so her wealthy granny can add another £100 to her bulging coffers. The SNP & Greens are shite.

But the world is over populated - the UK consumes much more than it produces so we import a lot of our food using planes, ships etc… Our carbon footprint is huge, loads of people died in flooding in Spain and some in the UK too - they explained this will increase in the years to come. We need to lower populations not try to maintain it.

This. ☝️

MSPs in Scottish Parliament https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-party-balance
SNP 62
Labour 22

MPs in UK Parliament https://members.parliament.uk/region/country/scotland
Labour 37
SNP 9

The SNP & Greens are shite.

Oh, totally agree on that. Utterly useless bunch of second rate councillors who couldn't run a raffle, never mind the country. You know what to do at the next election...

So you’re telling me that some people really love going through hell to get benefits to receive a pittance then?

It can’t be both.
A really hard experience to receive fuck all.
Or one that is actually pretty easy because ‘you find the loophole’.
Because if that loophole was so easy, then surely everyone would be doing that. You included no?

As for the generations on benefit, yes there are some.
And the answer is NOT to tighten things etc… it’s not working. We know that. The only thing it does is to put children in poverty.

@Babyname2025 I think you may be missing the point. Having one child, with a house in London, a household income of £75k, and £50k+ savings does not put you in the “irresponsible” category. The situations people general mean are single parent, rental property, no job, multiple kids by several fathers (none of whom help) , already living in poverty. Given that contraception and pregnancy terminations are free, I would say that bringing more children into that situation is irresponsible. Bringing one much-awaited child into an affluent London home is not irresponsible!

You can get child benefit for 3rd child

The cap isn't the answer. Yes, people make poor choices, but it is not the child's fault. No child should grow up hungry and without basics.

The solution is more support and better education. Also, redistribution of wealth. Social inequality is the driving factor.

Not quite right. In the Scottish Parliament SNPs hold the majority of seats. They are Members of Scottish Parliament.

In Westminster, Labour hold the majority of Scottish seats. These are MPs. It's easy to conflate the two systems.

The two child limit has not reduced the birth rate.

It has increased the number of children living in poverty. That’s children living in poverty. Children who made no choice to be in that situation and have virtually no power to pull themselves out of it.

I’m glad to live in a country that recognises this injustice and does something about it.

The solution is more support and better education. Also, redistribution of wealth. Social inequality is the driving factor

But resolving that would involve the SNP actually doing some hard work to try to resolve the problems which have been affecting parts of Scotland for generations. There are no quick fixes here but they are not up for making the committment to tackling the root causes of the inequality, they want a quick fix soundbite to keep them in the press and keep their wee pals in the Greens happy so they get their budget through parliament.

In the 17th century in England there was a debate about the obligations to the poor. The idea of predestination (a Calvinist Protestant belief) was used to justify it; basically, if you were well off, you were favoured by God and one of the elect who would go to heaven; and vice versa. God had predestined some souls to be saved and others to be condemned. So, the poor generally were not going to be saved….then there was another discussion about deserving and undeserving poor. Conduct determined if they would eat or starve, and sometimes location. As poor relief during the time of Elizabeth I was determined by your parish, really poor people were sometimes whipped beyond the parish boundary so the parish didn’t have to take care of them. In the 1590s during a famine, people starved to death.

I hope we have moved beyond the deserving and undeserving poor debate by now.

Oh okay thank you.
I don’t agree with cutting financial help towards children. There must better ways to deal with benefit cuts and not putting children in poverty.