'Rape clause' row as Keir Starmer says Labour will not scrap two child benefit cap

[IwantToRetire]

Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that Labour will not scrap the two-child benefit cap and the so-called rape clause.

In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the Labour leader refused to be drawn on a number of other spending commitments but was definite on the policy recently described by his Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jon Ashworth as “heinous”.

The two-child policy was introduced by George Osborne in his 2015 budget. It came into effect in 2017 after MPs backed the measure in the House of Commons.
It means that households claiming child tax credit or universal credit are unable to claim for a third or subsequent child born after 6 April 2017.

Earlier this week, the latest statistics revealed that 1.5 million children were growing up in families impacted by the cap. Children's charities, including Barnados and the Child Poverty Action Group have said this "tax on siblings" is the "biggest driver of rising child poverty in the UK today."

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/rape-clause-row-keir-starmer-090500712.html

There are lots of posters on FWR who feel alienated from Labour, some have even been kicked out.

But then other posters say anything is better than the Tories.

So without listing all the sins of the Tories, it would be really interesting to see information of proposed and actual Labour policies that will be good for women.

I mean actualyl centred on the reality of women's lives, not on the notion that women's rights should go to the back of the queue and women should sacrifice themselves for the "greater good".

Or in fact is the difference between the Tories and Labour wafer thin with nothing but self id being the dividing line.

Totally agree with this, and I'm a lifelong lefty. Yes our birthrate is falling, but there's no shortage of skilled and able migrants keen to come in.

What a bizarre response! No. The post I quoted went beyond snobbery to sheer vileness. Mine is a honest reply to a poster saying the children of poor people are a drain on society but middle-class children aren't. An honest appraisal of the likely jobs of each - carers, binmen, cleaners, shop staff for one and middle management for the other, not to mention the standard of that middle management that unfortunately we all have to deal with every day - tells us who is the drain on society. Never forget the career path doesn't depend on ability or intelligence either as social mobility is extremely poor and contacts make a huge difference in both getting a job and in not being sacked. Direct any anger at the genuine nastiness.

Spoken as someone who has no idea how low benefits are, not that facts should get in the way of a good rant about those no-good scroungers who are a drain on society. Scroungers like me. I'm a full-time carer for 2 older family members who need close attention and assistance with everything. I get £80 a week plus about £40 top-up and my weekly rent of £100 is paid. That's it, although it's obviously more than the vast majority of benefit claimants. I don't even get a bus pass to travel between their houses or to do their shopping so I walk miles. I also have a 1st class degree and am saving the local council hundreds of pounds every week.

I'd prefer not to be told I'm not living in the real world even though I'm the exact 'section of society' you're so eager to viciously attack. Perhaps consider how you're seen by others instead as I know full well the contempt you have for me - 'O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us'

I'm not talking about genuine hardship and people who can't work for legitimate reasons, I'm talking about the fact that for a large section of society there is no incentive to work when they can claim more in benefits. I just made up some answers on entitledto based on having 2 children and apparently I could receive £450 per week, doing no work whatsoever. That is equivalent to a salary of over £30K per year, which is more than a lot of people earn!
Clearly that's a huge problem, and one that I don't have an easy answer to, and nor do the successive governments over the years!

@Haver74 So whats the alternative?

You either have to cut benefits to below the NMW or increase wages (which isn't going to happen atm)

Your figures are also misleading because it inc child benefit and doesn't take into account what a single parent (with 2 school age children) would get in working benefits if in work with 2 children.... which would be £152 EXTRA per week if this parent did 30 hours per week on NMW and had a parent who could help with childcare.
You can add in the How much better off would i be in work? further down on that 'site.

So work does pay.

Before child benefit one's tax code was changed for every child you had, so the more children you had the less income tax you paid.