Scrap the Rape Clause petition

[MrsRabbitsTwin]

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post, but I wanted to flag the Scrap the Rape Clause campaign, which has only 24 hours to run and is just under its 10,000 signature target.

The Government have proposed withholding child benefits from women with more than three children, unless the woman can prove to the DWP that the child is the product of rape.

Alison Thewliss MP has done a really good job of trying to get further details from the government, but they have been very sketchy on how it is going to work.

The petition is here -
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105330

and more details about the campaign are here - petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105330

done
4dcs here

I don't understand the campaign - surely if you scrap the rape clause then that mean that kids who are the product of rape could lose out on child benefit - why would that be good? I also haven't seen anything which actually says women would have to prove they had been raped - what I read just said that they wouldn't to withold child benefit if the third child had been a result of rape. It might be that they would set low barrier for that.

I am totally against the proposed child benefit changes, this just seems like a very strange objection to me!

I think I probably didn't explain that very well. The plans are to restrict child benefit to two children, unless there's an unusual factor involved like a multiple birth or the third child being the product of rape.

It does mean that women would have to prove to the DWP that they had been raped (because how else would they be able to police it?), although details of how they would do this are vague.

I posed the link to the petition twice instead of the article, there is more information here

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/17/snp-mp-launches-campaign-against-tax-credit-clause

and here

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/29/tax-credits-rape-test-third-child-chilling-way-to-save-money

Signed

So you want them to limit to 2 children regardless of the circumstances?

I don't agree with the two children limit, but believe requiring women to prove they were raped to a government official to access benefits is particularly abhorrent, and completely unworkable.

They could just say that women need to have logged a complaint of rape with the police, for example. That would mean that there is no government official judging, and it doesn't require a conviction which obviously wouldn't be possible in every case. I sort of hope you wouldn't get too many women making false allegations against partners just for child benefit, but I might be a bit naive there.

mrsrabbits - so what is your choice - limit to 2 regardless or allow extenuating circumstances?