Latest news with #twochildcap
Sky News
7 hours ago
- Business
- Sky News
Rachel Reeves faces the numbers - can she cut it?
👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈 As Rachel Reeves prepares for next week's spending review, Beth explains why it could be a defining moment for the government and the chancellor is faced with difficult choices. Harriet talks about the two-child benefit cap and whether the government can afford to scrap it. And as Sir Keir Starmer puts the country on a war footing, Sky ' s defence correspondent Deborah Haynes joins Beth, Ruth and Harriet to talk about the strategic defence review and why there ' s no argument across parliament about defence spending. Deborah also talks about her own podcast The Wargame, which is out next week and simulates an attack on the UK.
Telegraph
27-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Farage is wrong about the two-child benefit cap. We must keep it
Spiralling welfare spending is bankrupting Britain. By the end of the decade it's forecast to reach £378 billion. We face a reckoning unless we do something radical. But the conversation in Westminster is untethered from reality. Instead of debating how to bring the welfare bill down, and move hundreds of thousands of people off welfare into the dignity of work, the question is whether we should add to that bill by scrapping the two-child benefits cap. Until now Starmer has upheld it. Morgan McSweeney – the advisor who directs the Prime Minister's every move – has told him that it's too unpopular to do away with. But with his hard Left backbenchers turning on him, the puppet Prime Minister has cut his strings and looks set to scrap the cap. Let's be clear what we're talking about here. The two-child benefit cap doesn't refer to child benefit. That benefit is available to all parents for all their children. It refers to those on universal credit. They received thousands of pounds on top of their child benefit for their first two children. The cap stops them receiving even more for their third, fourth and fifth child and so on. Why? Because allowing families to have children that they can't afford while prudent savers who do the right thing are forced to wait wasn't right. The two-child benefits cap is in place as a matter of fairness. I certainly thought carefully about the financial implications of having children – as do the vast majority. It is about personal responsibility; of living within your means so not to impose unnecessary burdens on others. Before the cap was introduced in 2017 there were scores of workless families with ten or more children living on state benefits worth more than £60,000 a year, much more money than they could hope to earn if they entered the job market. They would need to earn £93,000 to be left with the same amount of money after tax. And on top of that, they were entitled to be housed at the taxpayer's expense in ever-larger properties as their number of children increased. It was a trap for welfare dependency. The decision to scrap it would cost an estimated £3.5 billion a year, and would likely rise each year as workless families choose to benefit from it. As Kemi Badenoch rightly pointed out, it is a handout that will disproportionately benefit larger migrant families who could have lived here for as little as five years. So why is Farage backing this mad policy? Has a joint found its way into his usual pack of Marlborough Golds? Has he cooked this up after one too many pints at his local? This is without doubt Farage's biggest mistake. He's diagnosed the illness, but prescribed the wrong cure. We agree that demography is destiny. In the 1970s, there were four working age people to every pensioner. Now, we're fast approaching a ratio of two to one. That's pushed total tax receipts down and forced spending up for the same level of services. Without Brits having more children taxes will continue to rise, debt will explode, and public services will crumble under pressure. Most of the falling birth rate is explained by more women having no children at all. Scrapping the two-child policy would do nothing to change that, but will shred the fraying social contract between the state and our shrinking middle classes. The solution is to make families affordable again. Young adults are currently spending more money than ever on housing costs, leaving them with little disposable income to starts a family. It's why we must densify our cities and radically curtail housing demand from immigration, neither of which Labour are doing. A government serious about pro-family policy would make childcare cheaper and use the tax system to incentivise parenting – but Labour refuse to. Instead, Labour and Reform are locked in a bidding war to spend more in handouts. We already spend £100 billion annually just to service our debt – more than on healthcare, education or defence. Their dangerous game will eventually come crashing down. Robert Jenrick is the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Sky News
27-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Ministers considering scrapping two-child benefit cap, education secretary says
Ministers are considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the education secretary told Sky News. Bridget Phillipson, asked by Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast if the cap should be lifted, said: "It's not off the table. "It's certainly something that we're considering." The policy means most families cannot claim means-tested benefits for more than their first two children born after April 2017. Ms Phillipson's comments are the strongest a minister has made about the policy potentially being scrapped. Analysis by The Resolution Foundation thinktank over the weekend found 470,000 children would be lifted out of poverty if parents could claim benefits for more than two children. However, Ms Phillipson said the government inherited a "really difficult situation" with public finances from the Conservative government. "These are not easy or straightforward choices in terms of how we stack it up, but we know the damage child poverty causes," she added. 2:37 The education secretary, who is also head of the government's child poverty taskforce, said ministers are trying to help in other ways, such as expanding funded childcare hours and opening free breakfast clubs. She said it is "the moral purpose of Labour governments to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, can get on in life". Her "personal mission" is to tackle child poverty, she said. Sir Keir Starmer is said to have privately backed abolishing the two-child limit and requested the Treasury find the £3.5bn to do so, The Observer reported on Sunday. The government's child poverty strategy, which the taskforce is working on, has been delayed from its original publication date in the spring.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Labour are panicking. Starmer backed the two child benefit cap - now they want to scrap it, says Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride
The UK is in the grip of Labour 's cost-of-living crisis. Families across the country are working harder than ever, tightening their belts and making tough choices every day. In this climate, politicians owe the public honesty – not empty promises and reckless spending. That's why the two-child benefit cap must stay. It's not just responsible – it's fair. When this cap was introduced in 2017, it was based on a simple principle: working families don't get a sudden income boost when they have more children – they plan around what they can afford. The benefits system should reflect that same principle. That's not cruelty, as Gordon Brown claims – it's common sense. We already have a compassionate system that supports those in need. But the cap exists for a reason: fairness. Why should taxpayers – many of whom can't afford large families themselves – pick up the bill for others who choose to have more children than they can support? Welfare must be a safety net, not a blank cheque. And let's be honest about the fiscal reality. Our national debt has ballooned, with Labour spending over £100billion a year on debt interest – double the defence budget. Reversing the two-child cap would cost more than double the bill for restoring winter fuel payments to all pensioners. We're borrowing to fund welfare. That's the truth. Meanwhile, Reform has shown up with fantasy economics. Nigel Farage is promising to scrap the two-child limit and restore winter fuel payments – at a cost of £1.5billion a year – with no credible plan to pay for it. Their manifesto last year promised a £140billion spending splurge funded by imaginary savings. It's Corbynism in a different colour. Then there's Labour – divided, panicked, and indecisive. Keir Starmer has backed the two-child limit, admitting it would not be financially feasible to scrap it. He even suspended seven Labour MPs who voted to get rid of the cap last year. But after disastrous local elections, Starmer is folding under political pressure. Senior figures are demanding the cap's abolition, and Angela Rayner is pushing for even more tax rises. It's chaos in Downing Street, with Sir Keir set to put party before country yet again. This is Rachel Reeves' biggest test. Will she stick to her fiscal rules or cave under pressure? She's already rewritten those rules once to allow more borrowing. If she caves again, she won't be the Iron Chancellor – she'll be the Tin Foil Chancellor: flimsy, malleable, shaped by pressure not principle. Fiscal rules aren't a luxury – they're the foundation of trust. If Reeves folds again, what faith can the public or markets have in Labour's ability to manage the economy? The truth is this: keeping the two-child cap isn't just about money. It's about values – fairness, responsibility, and recognising the tough decisions working families already make. We should absolutely do more to support work, childcare, and reduce poverty. But scrapping a policy that rewards responsibility and protects economic credibility would be a step backwards. The Conservatives will not join the race to promise what we can't afford. Under new leadership, we will not pretend there are easy answers. And we will not sacrifice our economic credibility. Labour and Reform must come clean: where's the money coming from? Or is it just more debt and more tax on working families? The public deserves the truth.
Sky News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Nigel Farage's big announcement will pile more pressure on PM
No U-turn comes without a political cost. This weekend, it has become clear there is a price to pay for Sir Keir Starmer's decision to row back on winter fuel payment cuts. One MP said in a text message: "We all want to see more", while former prime minister Gordon Brown told Sky News this week the two-child benefit cap was "pretty discriminatory" and could be scrapped. The cap, which prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children, is a symbolic sore for Labour that saw seven MPs suspended from the party last year. Now it's back to cause more trouble. A Downing Street source suggests little has changed in the last week, and looking at the cap has always been part of the (now delayed) Child Poverty Strategy. 1:22 But, beyond the whispers behind the scenes, one thing has overtly changed this weekend - growing pressure from Nigel Farage. We expect Reform UK to announce this week that it will reinstate winter fuel payments and drop the cap. Farage is parking his tanks on Labour's lawn, trying to tap into working-class votes on uncomfortable territory for Starmer. How would they pay for it? A combination of closing asylum hotels, cutting aid, and scrapping net-zero targets, the party says. Headline-grabbing move The beauty of not being in power is not having to make all the sums add up right now, and it is a headline-grabbing announcement that will, at the very least, reignite the conversation about the two-child cap. It's also a reminder that Reform UK, who were beaten by Labour in 89 out of the 98 constituencies they came second in last year, have set their sights beyond the Conservatives. As for the Tories, who introduced the measure in 2017, leader Kemi Badenoch is clear, saying: "If you can't afford to have lots of children, then you shouldn't do so". 1:26 Blue water between Tories and Reform UK So, there is blue water between the Conservatives and Reform, but it's the prime minister and his party that Farage is targeting now, and Labour is unclear on where it stands. Deputy leader Angela Rayner told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that "lifting any measures that alleviate poverty is not a bad idea". With the spending review fast approaching, Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves will be working out the actual cost, beyond the political one, of rowing back on winter fuel payment cuts. But will the anger that the policy ignited among some Labour MPs end there? Or will it move to another uncomfortable subject?
