The two child benefit cap

[lrdisco]

Are you for or against it?
Personally we stopped at two children due to cost and I object to paying tax so the unwashed can live on benefits paid for out of my taxes.
Obviously not a problem paying for unexpectedly deceased but otherwise pay for your own offspring.

[GT03ROB]

For.

[Slow.Patrol]

For (against removal)

However, if the Government insist on this, then make it a tax allowance so that only working people benefit.

[BikeBikeBIke]

For.

Subsidising people who can't afford kids to have kids was always a crazy idea.

[fiatpower]

For the cap. I don't work so that someone can stay at home and pop out kid's for a job.

[AB]

fiatpower said:

For the cap. I don't work so that someone can stay at home and pop out kid's for a job.

Yep, same here. I've never received a penny in child benefit, I had kids because I was in a position to be able to, not because someone put me in the position against their will.

[pghstochaj]

Slow.Patrol said:

For (against removal)

However, if the Government insist on this, then make it a tax allowance so that only working people benefit.

What if the parent/parents is/are disabled and unable to work?

[dirty boy]

We purposefully stopped at two due to the expense and wanting to be able to give our children the best experiences possible.

Would have loved at least a 5-a-side team

[Tycho]

For.

But:

If the parents have a third child then what can you do without penalising the child? Do you give food and clothing stamps out instead of benefits to force the parents to spend on the kids rather than Sky, fags or booze? How would you treat a family with 3 kids and the main breadwinner is made redundant?

[Crumpet]

pghstochaj said:

Slow.Patrol said:

For (against removal)

However, if the Government insist on this, then make it a tax allowance so that only working people benefit.

What if the parent/parents is/are disabled and unable to work?

The amount they get even with the cap is, frankly, outrageous. Then of course there’s what actually classifies as a disability or inability to work…..

You shouldn’t be able to get more in benefits than someone working full time.

(For the cap.)

[GT03ROB]

Tycho said:

For.

But:

If the parents have a third child then what can you do without penalising the child? Do you give food and clothing stamps out instead of benefits to force the parents to spend on the kids rather than Sky, fags or booze? How would you treat a family with 3 kids and the main breadwinner is made redundant?

You want a 3rd or 4th or 5th, you make sure you can support them without benefits. It's called personal responsibility.

[Sheets Tabuer]

I find it slightly insane that you would reward the very people that bang out kids for more benefits with more benefits for banging out more kids.

[Frimley111R]

Tycho said:

For.

But:

If the parents have a third child then what can you do without penalising the child? Do you give food and clothing stamps out instead of benefits to force the parents to spend on the kids rather than Sky, fags or booze? How would you treat a family with 3 kids and the main breadwinner is made redundant?

This

For and against is a very simple way of looking at it but some people are idiots and have car crash lives. They wouldn't care that they live in poverty because of a cap, that's just the way they live and, as you point out, it's the kids that suffer.

You can say no more benefits after 2 but if they have more are you saying to them 'sorry, but your parents were warned?'

[andymc]

Frimley111R said:

Tycho said:

For.

But:

If the parents have a third child then what can you do without penalising the child? Do you give food and clothing stamps out instead of benefits to force the parents to spend on the kids rather than Sky, fags or booze? How would you treat a family with 3 kids and the main breadwinner is made redundant?

This

For and against is a very simple way of looking at it but some people are idiots and have car crash lives. They wouldn't care that they live in poverty because of a cap, that's just the way they live and, as you point out, it's the kids that suffer.

You can say no more benefits after 2 but if they have more are you saying to them 'sorry, but your parents were warned?'

the kids will not see a penny of it

[Granadier]

For, for the same reasons as everyone else said

[otolith]

The replacement rate for the UK (the average number of children a woman needs to bear in order to maintain a static population size) is 2.1 children per woman over their reproductive life.

If you wish to maintain a stable population, if every woman has at least two children, you need 10% of women to have 3 kids.

If, as is currently the case in the UK, 18% of women never have any children, you need 46% of women to have 3 kids.

If additionally, as is currently the case in the UK, 17% of women only ever have one child, you need 63% of women to have 3 kids.

[untakenname]

I know too many people who put off having kids till their late 30's due to not being able to afford it in their twenties and for some it's now too late so I'm for keeping the cap.

Sob story articles like this are annoying, the case studies they use are a single mum of 4 and a single mum of 5!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cql94yr4y7vo.a...

[stuckmojo]

Absolutely for the cap.

[borcy]

All depends on what benefits are inside the cap and what isn't, who is eligible and who isn't.

Bit too broad brush at the moment.

[BikeBikeBIke]

otolith said:

The replacement rate for the UK (the average number of children a woman needs to bear in order to maintain a static population size) is 2.1 children per woman over their reproductive life.

If you wish to maintain a stable population, if every woman has at least two children, you need 10% of women to have 3 kids.

If, as is currently the case in the UK, 18% of women never have any children, you need 46% of women to have 3 kids.

If additionally, as is currently the case in the UK, 17% of women only ever have one child, you need 63% of women to have 3 kids.

If we want to subsidise children to keep our population up then let's subsidise the best parents not the worst.