Rachel Reeves resists calls to lift two-child benefit cap

20 comments

1. Pretty disappointing from Labour, should have dropped this bullshit.

2. Labour not really doing all that much to convince people they’re not just red tie tories

   People voted against the tories in the last election, not for labour. Unless labour start trying to differentiate themselves from their predecessors, I can easily see the tories getting back in next election once people have forgotten how crap they were

3. Is there another policy out there that is such an easy win as this one? Like it’s 3bn to raise a quarter of a million kids out of poverty, that’s a fucking bargain.

4. Reform are going to win 2029. Labour is going to continue the legacy of the tories with more kids in poverty, more taxation, more immigration. People of all stripes won’t put up with it any more. Reform is the only way they’ll think to vote to smash the system.

5. No kids here no skin in the game, but I’m rather surprised. They really are trying to go down the “tight fiscal” path.

6. Well that was a short honeymoon. Perhaps we could wait until the first budget before decrying Labour as tories-incarnate?

7. Their priority is their corporate donors so it’s not surprising –

   https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/lovebombed-by-lobbyists-how-starmer-labour-became-the-party-of-big-business/

8. Great decision. This ability to muzzle the crazies in the party is exactly why I voted for them.

9. Ps Labour under Starmer/Reeves will 100% go after disabled people next in regards to welfare. The reason being that the majority of the public don’t care/think that everyone is scamming the system and thereby it will be an easy thing to target.

10. When the repo rate in Britain is under 1.5 and continuing to plunge then we have a government promoting an anti-family agenda. What a disaster and they’ve been in power less than a month.

11. Good, benefits for the third child wouldn’t make a dent in it, Reddit hates to acknowledge the fact that many of these parents are already work shy lazy scumbags that drink, smoke and gamble these benefits away. Everyone with any experience growing up on bad estates knows this.

    Throwing money at it doesn’t ‘raise these children out of poverty’ when they’re suppressed by awful parenting.

12. What is the issue with the two child benefit cap?

    I consider myself to be liberal, I voted Labour in this election (usually Lib Dem or Green) and have never voted Tory. What I just can’t understand, is why this should be a priority? I *think* I have grasped the argument for:

    Helping to alleviate child poverty.

    £17 per week is not alleviating child poverty. I know £68 per month is a lot to some people, but are you really telling me that that much will make the difference to people justifying bringing up another child or not? If £68 per month was the absolute clincher for another child, I’d be thinking long and hard about whether that was the right thing for me to do.

    I earn a decent wage and am a higher rate tax payer. But having a third child would mean having to get a new car (think car seats), more food, some more clothes (obvs not a wardrobe) and everything else that comes with that. I might have liked to have 3, but I know I cannot afford it.

    Now, I absolutely don’t want children to be punished for being born into a large family. But I also don’t understand why you are having those children if the child benefit is the golden goose that makes all the difference. I would rather that money to be targeted and means tested for families who needed it more or provided through, more widely available free school meals, vouchers and things like that. I would also rather i) child benefit was increased for families (up to two), ii) child benefit was the same for children 1 & 2, with exceptions given to people who have triplets and things like that.

    I am also quite conscious of the environment and feel that effectively ‘replacing’ yourself wasn’t the worst? I did toy with the idea of not having children.

    I am genuinely looking to see outside of what might be my own bias, does anybody see or have other opinions that might change my mind?

13. And how many of these kids will end up living a life of benefits or crime just like their parents anyway, a scourge to society, and forever draining the public purse. Enough funding benefit scroungers. If they know having kids doesn’t get them funded housing and £££ then they won’t be having them. Throwing money does not fix useless, selfish, irresponsible parenting. Sorry, Stacy and Steve – it’s mummy’s fault your life is shit but shouldn’t be down to us to fix all her failings.

14. I could support scrapping the cap but only for British Citizens children. The would cut out a good portion of those just looking for a cash payout.

15. I don’t understand why you get paid to have a kid. If you can’t afford children. Don’t have them

16. Better that they make childcare more affordable. That way the people who are more risk averse and choose not to have children feel safer having them. A lot of the people having2+ kids either don’t know how birth control works or they’re foreigners.

17. Back in the day I worked in a Job Centre and we would handle claims for benefits for clients.  I can’t remember the exact process but we would sort something and then the DHSS would pay them.

    I’d regularly see people getting more in benefits because they had six kids than I was earning working full time there.

    So, yes, having babies for the money was a viable life choice and many took it.

18. Top comment is currently referring to Child Benefit.

    The Two Child limit does NOT apply to Child Benefit. You can still get Child Benefit for as many children as you can bear, as long as you’re below the earnings thresholds.

    The Two Child Limit applies to those also claiming means-tested benefits, now most commonly Universal Credit. Each child outside the limit is £66.44pw benefit not received.

19. I’m ok with the cap being lifted, because I don’t want children to be in poverty, especially as it isn’t their fault. I am more than happy to pay more tax to ensure that. Aren’t 1 in 3 kids already in poverty in the UK? We need to do better.

    It’s funny how it’s usually people who are already doing well for themselves, or are at least comfortable who seem to be against this. If you were struggling to put food on the table for your child, and/or having to choose between food or warmth, I bet you would feel differently. We have such a lack of empathy in this country, and it shows.

20. Wait until you realise how many things they won’t change…