A Conservative councillor is alleged to have called for "compulsory sterilisation of all those who have had a second child - or third, or whatever - while living off state benefits".
Idiot!
There is a much simpler and better solution to all this.
Dismayed
2 hours ago
4 comments:
I seem to remember that child benefit was historically paid for the second and further children. I don't know when this was changed but a reversal to that may make a difference, no?
STB.
Child Benefit is still paid to an unlimited number of children. Capping it at the first three seems about right to me.
Even better would be to replace it with a Child Tax Allowance for the parents.
That way responsible working adults would be able to afford more children, and irresponsible non-working parents would have to have fewer.
After all, in a rational world that is the way around you would want it - encourage responsible people rather than irresponsible.
W, in the long run, that approach has a lot of merit. However, given where we are, on balance, I prefer low-level non-means tested universal benefits as a first step. There are plenty of half-way houses; you could freeze the flat-rate Child Benefit and gradually introduce/increase Child Tax Allowances, for example.
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