What is this 2 child cap benefit anyway? Who does it affect?

If you were left with your children, didn't work, and relieved money, it would have been more than family allowance, I'd imagine.

Provision was made then for lone parents, as it is now.

I have no idea what this would relate to as when my eldest child born ‘72 I also got free Orange juice at the baby clinic , not sure about the milk tokens . I was married & my husband supported us through working .
In another note a neighbour who has 3 children moved here without a partner & went on to have a further 2 children , one with disabilities & younger one born I. Lockdown . She does not work , maybe due to child’s disability, takeaway deliveries constantly , though child is at school no windows ever open , the garden is never used .by children , no washing ever hung out !
Stands at front door all times of day & night in pjs smoking .
Now i do say walk a mile in someone else’s shoes . But I also don’t ageee with malingering & children being born to many different fathers in the same family being brought up by the state with no one making sure of the children’s care

JenniferEccles

To my astonishment, saying people should only have the children they can afford, is often not very well received on GN !

It's quite possible, if one were to jot down some £sums, that the low-paid cannot - theoretically - afford to have even one child. In fact this has been true for hundreds of years.

The poor / disadvantaged / low-paid - whatever you want to call them - frequently live hand-to-mouth or are at least one week's wages away from destitution. Poverty replicates itself through the generations, apart from a minority who manage to escape the trap via social mobility or sheer grit and determination. Usually the latter because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find opportunities and options to climb the ladder.

One thing I've realised is that I personally rely heavily on the services and the labour of the low-paid for my relatively comfortable life-style. From delivery-drivers, shelf-stackers, cleaners, shop assistants, warehousemen, gardeners, care-workers, you name it - I can afford things they can't.

So what do we do? Decree that only the well-off should have children?

Not correct I got it from 1988 till 2004/7 respectively for both my kids

Mojack26

Not correct I got it from 1988 till 2004/7 respectively for both my kids

Not sure what benefits you are referring to - the 2 child limit came in in 2015 and related to tax credits then and latterly to universal credit which has replaced tax credits.

This thread has been going round in circles for ages. Too many people are not reading before commenting.

Absolutely agree with Dickens’ post above. Society and the economy needs people to do low paid work but it seems as though we resent their existence when they need help because basically low paid work doesn’t pay.
I’ve just been looking again at the original post which asks ‘who does the 2 child benefit limit affect?’ and the short answer is that the people it affects most of all are children in poor families who go to school hungry because of lack of food, live, play and sleep in poor quality housing where damp and mould affect their health, are cold in their beds at night and when they go out because their clothes are too thin. Read a bit of Dickens or Elisabeth Gaskell writing about poor families in the 19th century to give you a feel for what life is like for many children. OK, I’ll stop now.

I think it has become obvious LailaAnn, that very few people on this site care and if they are a representative sample of the population, not many of the rest of the country care either.

Often the lowest paid jobs are the most important. Look at how shop workers were seen as 'essential' workers during the pandemic. We need people to cook and clean. We need people in care and support jobs. The problem isn't people not working hard enough, the problem is pay for these jobs. Teaching assistants in schools have terrible take home pay for example too

Bring a carer is much, much harder then being a civil servant.
No comparison, in terms of hard, physical work.

and emotionally demanding too

Oh yes!
I found it hard to get emotional about tax returns.

Ilovecheese

I think it has become obvious LailaAnn, that very few people on this site care and if they are a representative sample of the population, not many of the rest of the country care either.

There’s some evidence to support that being the case.
yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/50140-public-support-retaining-the-two-child-benefit-limit-as-starmer-gears-up-for-first-rebellion

Hear Hear JaneJudge.

Isn't the income level for child benefit each parent can earn under £60k and receive the benefit but if say one earns £62k and the other £25k then they are exempt even though total income is far less than eg 2 x £59k. Madness all round

Ilovecheese

I think it has become obvious LailaAnn, that very few people on this site care and if they are a representative sample of the population, not many of the rest of the country care either.

I feel quite strongly that most people can be quite influenced in either direction - i.e. towards a more caring or less caring attitude - and so although I get upset about what I read that individuals say, actually I think the main responsibility for caring/not caring reads with political leaders, media etc. I think it partly depends on what information people have and so accurate information matters (e.g. on immigration and it’s costs and benefits, poor families and employment or dependence on benefits, cost to economy of benefits, or of benefit fraud and the cost to the economy of tax avoidance and tax evasion - and so on and so forth). But it also depends on how political leaders and others with authority and influence talk. And it depends on how difficult people’s lives are. For some time we have been in a situation in this country where many people’s lives are much harder than they were. It may be the poorest who suffer most from crumbling public services but it affects all of us. We feel uncared for and so it can make it hard for us to feel caring towards others - but if we follow that route things only get worse for everyone. I have felt appalled by the right-wing rioters in Southport who have taken advantage of a terrible tragedy for their own ends - but a little cheered by reports of local people repudiating that message and coming out to help clear up the damage to the local mosque.

Ilovecheese

I think it has become obvious LailaAnn, that very few people on this site care and if they are a representative sample of the population, not many of the rest of the country care either.

On a much more trivial note, I have only just read your username properly and see it says Ilovecheese - which I agree with! - but I am recovering from eye surgery and had previously read it as Hovecheese, which intrigued me as I have a friend living in Hove!

4allweknow

Isn't the income level for child benefit each parent can earn under £60k and receive the benefit but if say one earns £62k and the other £25k then they are exempt even though total income is far less than eg 2 x £59k. Madness all round

That is child benefit, nothing to do with the 2 child benefit limit.

LailaAnn

4allweknow

Isn't the income level for child benefit each parent can earn under £60k and receive the benefit but if say one earns £62k and the other £25k then they are exempt even though total income is far less than eg 2 x £59k. Madness all round

That is child benefit, nothing to do with the 2 child benefit limit.

Sorry, just read properly and seen that you are indeed talking about child benefit!

JaneJudge

Often the lowest paid jobs are the most important. Look at how shop workers were seen as 'essential' workers during the pandemic. We need people to cook and clean. We need people in care and support jobs. The problem isn't people not working hard enough, the problem is pay for these jobs. Teaching assistants in schools have terrible take home pay for example too

Couldn’t agree more.