Gordon Brown reiterates call for government to drop two-child benefit cap. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has once more reiterated his call for the government to drop what he has described as the ‘cruel’ two-child benefit cap, which he says is a significant driver of child poverty in the UK.

by bottish

20 comments

  2. If you can’t afford kids, don’t have them. It’s a simple message. The cap is in place because people took the piss. Nobody owes you anything for knocking kids out. About time people took some personal responsibility.

  3. >Gordon Brown reiterates call for government to drop two-child benefit cap.

    Yesterday we had Andrew Marr tell us that, despite removing it from Labour’s manifesto, Keir’s [personal priority was scrapping the cap](https://x.com/NewStatesman/status/1925843376110227854). Hours later No 10 [announced a further delay to the results of the PR stunt they created as an excuse to do nothing on the cap](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/23/no-10-delays-child-poverty-plan-despite-tens-of-thousands-more-hardship)

  4. > The former Labour leader also said that the two-child cap was wrong because ‘the reason people are in poverty is not because people are feckless and work shy and not dependent, **70% of those children who are in poverty are in working families where people simply don’t earn enough a week to be able to bring up the children.**”

    > He went on to say: “And equally when it comes to the two-child rule, **60% of children caught by the two-child rule are in working families.**”

    > “And the others are families where someone is temporarily unemployed or sick, or incapacitated for some reason, or mothers just can’t afford the childcare that’s necessary for them to be able to go out to work.

    > “We’re dealing with a wrong diagnosis of the poverty problem, poverty used to be related to unemployment, it’s now low pay.”

    I remember when the media (particulaly in Scotland) hung on every Gordon Brown’s uttereance, but this one has had very little coverage/mentions.

     

    **Edit**: which is a shame because the bits with percentages in them are pretty interesting (now with added bold, by me).

     

    **Edit2**: also, I think he’s probably correct when he says: “‘We’re dealing with a wrong diagnosis of the poverty problem, poverty used to be related to unemployment, it’s now low pay.'”

  5. “I strenuously object your honour”

    Oh strenuously? In that case I change my mind

  6. Brown has zero credibility, after all his vow bullshit. Why is he still getting any press listening to anything he has to say?

  7. And increase taxes to pay for it… no thanks, we pay enough as it is! If you want kids you pay for them yourself through your work.

  8. I know an immigrant with Turkish ancestry, who was born abroad, came to the UK as a child, took advantage of the educational system, has several children by several women, frequently whilst having affairs while married, was employed in a well-paid public sector job, with free accommodation, but complained that his wages were “insufficient for his lifestyle”, until he was eventually removed for gross misconduct. And he has the nerve to complain about being ill-treated by society.

    His name is >!boris johnson!<

  9. All of his arguments seem reasonable, but the 2-child cap has always felt like a “solution” to the “they just keep having more kids and live in a mansion” trope about people having kids just for the benefits.

    Not sure it was ever about getting people back into work, just about satisfying people who fume at the periodic news stories about the Jones family, who have 7 kids, live in a 5 bedroom council house and haven’t worked in the past 9 years but still go to Spain on holiday, all on benefits.

  10. Is he kept in a cupboard somewhere and just wheeled out now and then, makes a statement, then gets shoved back in?

  11. If you want more people (workers) you need more babies. Let’s not end up like Japan.

  12. Every time Gordon Brown is mentioned on r/Scotland :

    ThE vOw GoRdOn BrOwN iS a YoOn tHe VoW uNiOnIsT sAiD uNiOnIsT tHinGs

  13. Fundamentally, there shouldn’t be a two child limit. Individuals need to take some bloody accountability tho, if they don’t work they cannot afford to have 3plus kids. It’s as simple as that. Like every other life choice, if you don’t work why would you have kids that you can’t support and need the state to raise?

  14. Currently the Labour Party refusing to act like the Labour Party is a significant driver of all-round poverty in the UK. The only people that have cone out well are the wealthy!

  15. Fuck him and fuck his Broonterventions.

    Guy gets away with this shite constantly, he’ll back shite policy for years and then when it all goes wrong he pipes up with the obvious and gets massive coverage and praise for pretending to oppose some shite he previously supported.

  17. Not until they stop people having babies as a living, in fact don’t stop it, we don’t need more babies that parent can’t adored and don’t give a shit about beyond how much cash they can get

  18. Is the SNP still choosing to starve Scottish children? Remember when they said they’d give Scottish children free school meals but instead cut funding so much that Scottish children are being starved by getting 3 chips or a dry wrap while also having the cheek to make people pay?

  19. The reason for child poverty is shitty parents. Anyone on a minimum wage job can live frugally and save up and provide for kids. As an example that proves my point- why do Chinese desccent kids, end up as doctors, lawyers and engineers even though their parents are low wage takeaway shop workers? (I mean there are theories that intelligence is genetic that would explain it I guess, also social values like Confucianism). Also applies to certain other minorities like Indians and Jews.

    When I was a kid, I never understood it. But now I can see it’s the shitty parents fault, also seeing how since 2008 a lot of ‘responsible’ people can’t have kids because they can’t afford it, or have 1-2 at max, while the poorest just have multiple kids because they get a rent free council house. The UK welfare system encourages ‘trash’ to breed and disincentives ‘responsible’ people.

  20. There should be no cap on number of kids.

    but the benefit should be 100% for household combined incomes of £50k, then progressively drop down to 0% at combined incomes of £75k (twice the average salary).

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