Latest news with #welfare
The Sun
3 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
PM must stand firm and keep the two-child benefit cap – Welfare is already out of control
PM must resist the two-child benefit pressure 'UNSUSTAINABLE, indefensible and unfair.' Sir Keir Starmer was spot-on when he made his blunt assessment of Britain's grotesquely spiralling welfare bill back in March. 1 As it rockets towards £70billion a year by the end of this decade, we simply cannot afford to allow this crazed spending spree to go on. Yet many of his own MPs are deaf to common sense on this issue. Like leftie Employment Minister Alison McGovern, who believes those out of work should be able to turn down a job if they don't fancy it. As with other Labour rebels, she sees state handouts as the only answer to every problem. No doubt she will be among the MPs piling pressure on the PM to axe the two-child benefit cap this week after new figures showed a rapid increase in child poverty. The figures are shocking, but Sir Keir must stand firm and keep the cap. It stops parents claiming benefits for more than two children and lifting it would pile another £3.5billion on our already unmanageable welfare bill. What's more, it would award more handouts to 180,000 families in which nobody has a job. As Labour grandee Lord Blunkett points out, there is a limit to how far the state can go in child support. And in any case why should those who continue to work hard and pay taxes have to fork out even more for the children of those who don't? Vest-up jail guards ANOTHER day, another brutal prison attack. The shocking stabbing of a guard by a convict armed with a flick-knife at HMP Long Lartin is just the latest in a spate of violent incidents in Britain's out-of-control jails. How much longer can we sit on our hands while they are put at risk because they cannot protect themselves? The Tories' Shadow Home Secretary Robert Jenrick has called for guns to be available on-site in prisons. Such weapons might be justifiable in extreme cases such as riots. But guards come into daily contact with convicted murderers and terrorists. They must have the minimum they need to keep order safely. Those working in the most dangerous jails should immediately be issued with stab vests and tasers.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
David Blunkett and Gordon Brown at war over the 2 child benefit cap as new stats suggest more kids falling into poverty
NEW Labour big beasts are at war over proposals to scrap the two-child benefit cap — as statistics suggest more youngsters are being plunged into poverty. In a bombshell intervention, ex-Home Secretar y David Blunkett today comes out against tearing up the welfare limit. 3 It puts him at loggerheads with former PM Gordon Brown, who branded the benefit cap cruel and is leading the charge to abolish it. Lord Blunkett's explosive comments come as Sir Keir Starmer is under huge pressure over the policy. An estimated 4.5million kids were living in relative poverty last year compared with 4.3million the year before, figures from the End Child Poverty coalition show. Furious Labour MPs are in open revolt over the two-child cap — which they want scrapped. Imposed in 2017, it stops parents claiming child tax credit or universal credit worth up to £3,455 per year for more than two children. Reform leader Nigel Farage fanned the flames last week by vowing to ditch it if he becomes PM. Downing Street accused him of 'fantasy economics' and said his £3.5billion spending pledge was unfunded. 3 But amid bitter rows inside the Government about it, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said axing the cap is 'on the table'. Writing in today's The Sun on Sunday, Lord Blunkett said work, not handouts, is the best way to raise families out of poverty. He said: 'Surely having children that you cannot afford to feed is the legacy of a bygone era? 'The simple and obvious truth is that child poverty springs from the lack of income of the adults who care for them.' A decision on the cap is set for the autumn — with Chancellor Rachel Reeves expected to announce tax rises to pay for it if it is axed. Privately, Government figures believe the clear direction of travel is that it will be lifted. Adding to the pressure on No 10, figures shared exclusively with The Sun on Sunday suggest the number of children in poverty in Sir Keir's own constituency is soaring. Holborn and St Pancras in London had a rate of 47 per cent last year compared with 36.3 per cent the year before, the End Child Poverty coalition found. The group defines child poverty to be growing up in a household where income is 60 per cent below average. For a family of one adult and one child this is £263 a week and for a family of two adults and two children it is £547 a week. A slew of Labour Cabinet ministers represent seats with high levels of child poverty, the research found. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood's Birmingham Ladywood seat had the highest, at 61.9 per cent. Rachel Reeves represents a constituency where one in three kids are in poverty while Deputy PM Angela Rayner's seat has almost 40 per cent. The PM has promised to cut child poverty by the 2029 election. Axing the cap will cost about £3.5billion and would have to be funded by tax rises or even deeper cuts. Ditching it and a full U-turn on the winter fuel allowance would together cost £5billion. It is the same amount No 10 is trying to save with its cuts to disability and sickness benefits — being voted on later this month. Around 180,000 households not in work would get more cash, it said. While just 270,000 households in work — but on low wages — would benefit. 3 Lord Blunkett, while backing the cap, supports lifting it for parents who have disabled kids or multiple births — such as twins or triplets. The peer, who was brought up in grinding poverty in Sheffield, also called on the Government to 'come down like a ton of bricks' on absent fathers who do not pay for their kids. Tomorrow, more than 130 charities will call on Labour to axe the two-child policy in full. Dan Paskins, of Save the Children, said: 'A record number of children are now in poverty and this is under the noses of our MPs, particularly Cabinet members.' A Government spokeswoman said: 'We've already expanded free breakfast clubs, introduced a cap on cost of school uniforms, increased the national minimum wage for the lowest incomes, uprated benefits in April and supported 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.'
The Sun
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Fury as Labour minister suggests Brits on the dole can turn down job offers they do not like
WELFARE Minister Alison McGovern was slammed last night after saying people on benefits will not be forced to take 'any job' offered to them. Under the last Tory government, people on the dole had to look for work and take up a role if a jobcentre found them one. 2 But MsMcGovern hit out at the policy and suggested that under Labour those on the dole would be able to pick and choose what job they take before having their benefits taken off them. She told The Guardian: 'The Tories used to talk about ABC: 'Any job, Better job, Career'. 'I think that if you think about the career [first] … If we can get people into an NHS job where they're more likely to move on and move up, then that is far better for them.' Tory shadow welfare chief Helen Whately hit back: 'The mask has slipped - and it's the same old Labour. 'Those who can work, should work. To do otherwise is unfair to them, unfair to the taxpayer and unfair to society which pays the spiralling cost of worklessness. 'It's one of the biggest problems facing the country. But with the employment minister telling people not to worry about getting a job, we know the Government hasn't got a grip.' 2 Last night, the government slapped down Ms McGovern - saying there was no change in policy and that jobless Brits on benefits must take work if offered it. A Government source said: 'There's no change in policy. The rules remain the same: jobseekers have to be actively seeking work and they have to take up reasonable job offers. 'The Tories ran down job centres and locked millions of people out of work. "This Labour government is changing the way job centres work to help more people into secure, well-paid jobs.'
The Sun
14 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Plans to lift two-child benefit cap will land UK's biggest jobless families with windfalls costing taxpayer £3.5bn
THE UK's biggest jobless families could receive a windfall of £3.5billion funded by the taxpayer if plans to lift the two-child benefit cap go ahead. Since 2017, parents have only been able to claim child tax credit and universal credit for their first two children, if they were born after April 2017. 3 3 An exception is made for children born as a result of rape. Now, Labour and Reform are both pushing to ditch the policy brought in by the Tories. The Labour party has long been divided over the issue, with Sir Keir Starmer ruling out scrapping the cap in 2023. However, on Thursday the PM hinted he's ready to heed the demands of Labour rebels and scrap the two-child benefit cap. Sir Keir gave his strongest indication yet that he will remove the threshold that limits handouts for a third kid. Analysis of official figures shows that ditching it would hand thousands of pounds a year in extra benefits to 180,000 large families in which no one goes out to work. But critics of the cap claim it has worsened child poverty. The hard-hitting rule, which slashes payments like Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit, is costing struggling households an average of £4,300 each, says a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Official figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show a staggering 450,000 families were stung by the cap last year. Most of those hit - around 280,000 families – have three kids, while 120,000 have four, and 56,000 are raising five or more little ones. The DWP doesn't reveal exactly how much the biggest families are missing out on. However, separate stats from HMRC show child benefit - which isn't affected by the cap - is still being paid to some 15 families with a whopping 13 children or more. More than 16,000 families are getting child benefit for six kids, and over 5,000 are claiming for seven. Incredibly, nearly three in five of the families hit by the cap have at least one adult in work - proving that even grafting parents aren't safe from the squeeze. However, this leaves around 180,000 where no one in the household is in any kind of paid work. But former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey last night said the figures underlined the case for keeping the cap in place. She said: "Encouraging people to have children that they cannot afford themselves, and expecting others to pick up the tab for them, is financially and morally indefensible. "I expect nothing better from Labour, but it is a mistake for Nigel Farage to chase Labour to the Left." Laying the groundwork for a U-turn on his election claim the cap won't be abandoned, Sir Keir said earlier this week that he was 'determined to drive down child poverty'. Visiting a glass manufacturing plant in Warrington, on three occasions he wouldn't rule out a change in policy. Amid growing pressure from furious backbench MPs, Sir Keir insisted ministers were 'looking at all options' around tackling poverty among kids. And Nigel Farage raised eyebrows when he announced that a Reform-led government would ditch the cap completely. How many children does the cap affect? Then work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith first proposed the policy in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. It was not until 2015 that then chancellor George Osborne announced a cap would be introduced from the 2017/2018 financial year. The coalition said it made the system fairer for taxpayers and ensured households on benefits faced the same financial choices around having children as those not on benefits. Government figures show one in nine children (1.6m) are impacted by the two-child limit. In the first three months Labour were in power, 10,000 children were pulled into poverty by the cap, the Child Poverty Action Group found. In May, it said another 109 children are pulled into poverty each day by the limit, adding to the 4.5 million already in poverty. The Resolution Foundation said the cap would increase the number of children in poverty to 4.8 million by the next election in 2029-30. Torsten Bell, the foundation's former chief executive and now a Labour Treasury minister, said scrapping the cap would lift 470,000 children out of poverty. 3
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Thousands of Britain's biggest jobless families in line for taxpayer-funded windfalls if Labour or Reform go through with plans to lift two-child benefit cap
Thousands of Britain's biggest jobless families could receive huge windfalls from the taxpayer under plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Labour and Reform are both pushing to ditch the policy brought in by the Tories in 2017 despite the £3.5billion cost it would incur. Critics of the cap claim it has worsened child poverty. But analysis of official figures shows that ditching it would hand thousands of pounds a year in extra benefits to 180,000 large families in which no one goes out to work. Former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey last night said the figures underlined the case for keeping the cap in place. 'Encouraging people to have children that they cannot afford themselves, and expecting others to pick up the tab for them, is financially and morally indefensible,' she said. 'I expect nothing better from Labour, but it is a mistake for Nigel Farage to chase Labour to the Left.' Ms McVey said it was 'bizarre' for Reform to want to 'expand the welfare state in this way' after voting against lifting the cap in a ballot on the King's Speech last summer. She said the Tories were now the only party 'standing up for taxpayers and for common sense in this matter', echoing comments made by party leader Kemi Badenoch in this newspaper yesterday. The benefit cap limits means-tested benefits like universal credit and child tax credit payments to the first two children, costing families a typical £3,455 in lost benefits for each additional child. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated the two-child cap costs affected families an average of £4,300 each. Figures, produced by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), show that more than 450,000 families were affected by the cap last year. Around three-fifths (280,000) had three children, while a quarter (120,000) had four children and 56,000 had five or more. The DWP does not provide a breakdown of payments to the biggest families. But separate figures held by HM Revenue and Customs show that child benefit, which is not subject to the cap, was paid to more than 16,000 families with six children, more than 5,000 with seven children and even to 15 families with 13 children or more. Of the 450,000 families affected in total, around three-fifths include at least one adult who is in some form of work. This leaves around 180,000 where no one in the household is in any kind of paid work. The figures will fuel the growing political debate over whether to soften the impact of the cap or ditch it altogether. They come a day after Mrs Badenoch accused Labour and Reform of engaging in a 'race to the bottom' over welfare. The Tory leader said it was wrong to ask taxpayers, 'many of whom are struggling to raise their own children or choosing not to have them in the first place, to fund unlimited child support for others'. She added: 'Welfare traps people, builds dependency and it drives up costs for everyone.' Opinion polls show consistent public support for the cap. But the Conservatives are now the only major party defending the policy. Dozens of Labour MPs are pushing for the cap to be scrapped as part of a review into tackling child poverty, which has now been delayed until the autumn. One minister told the Mail there was a 'widespread feeling at all levels of the party that it is wrong to be penalising children in this way'. Sir Keir Starmer, who is facing a wider Labour revolt on welfare, confirmed this week that the Government is looking at 'all options' to tackle child poverty, including ending the cap. Other, cheaper options being considered by ministers include raising the cap to the first three children or removing it for all children until the age of five. Gordon Brown is urging Chancellor Rachel Reeves to consider new taxes on gambling and the banks to fund the removal of the 'cruel' cap. Mr Farage raised eyebrows this week when he announced that a Reform-led government would ditch the cap completely. The Reform leader – who is targeting disaffected Labour voters – said his party backed the move 'not because we support a benefits culture' but in order to help families struggling to make ends meet. The cap applies to third and additional children born after April 2017 when the policy was introduced. As a result, the number of affected families is increasing every year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said it was eventually likely to affect 800,000 families.
