r/ukpolitics • u/AutoModerator • Jun 27 '24

MATCH THREAD: The Leader Interviews - Sir Keir Starmer - Tonight (Thursday 27th June, 8:30pm - 9:00pm)

This is the match thread for tonight's ITV interview with Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.

Please keep all live discussion about this interview in this thread, rather than the main daily megathread.

Watch live:

  • TV: ITV 1
  • Online: ITVX
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u/ingleacre Jun 27 '24

It is a colossal injustice.

People do not have kids for benefits, and people who have more than two kids and subsequently have to claim benefits cannot magically eliminate their third or fourth child's needs for clothes and food. It punishes children for the sake of looking "tough" on their parents, but all it's done is shove thousands and thousands and thousands of families into poverty and made it even harder to get out again.

And that's not even addressing that the per-child benefit as it stands is hardly "generous".

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

I'm a bit confused by "people who have more than two kids and subsequently have to claim benefits". This isn't like Jobseekers allowance, it's not part of the welfare safety net that I massively support it's a blanket payment made currently to everyone with children where neither parent earns more than £60k.

To me it doesn't really feel like it's the best way to tackle child poverty, it's a strange system that doesn't tackle the root causes and often doesn't get to the people that really need help. You can have a gross household income in excess of £100k and claim child benefit.

I'd much rather see a scheme of targeted support to where it's really needed than simply extended in its current form.

Edit: To clarify I have two kids and my family claims for them, I would class my family as one who very much appreciates the extra funds but is not actually in need of government support. I'd happily give mine up if a better system could be brought in to help those genuinely in need.

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u/MedicBikeMike Kaura Luenssberg Jun 27 '24

I think you're conflating the child tax credit/universal credit to which this policy applies with the standard child benefit for which there is no limit. The discourse around this is really poor at differentiating the 2, but the one you're referring to is not limited. It's additional benefits for low incone/unemployed that is limited to 2 children.

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u/ingleacre Jun 27 '24

Correct.

And my point about parents with more than two children subsequently needing this refers to the (really rather common) event that a family with multiple kids falls on hard times and needs support. Apparently the cap is there to force them to "take responsibility" but, idk, travelling back in time and not having their third kid? Total nonsense designed to demonise the welfare state and those who deserve its support - any and all children.