Today the two-child benefit cap on universal credit ends (after nine years) allowing us to see (when data becomes available) what impact its imposition & now reversal had on child poverty.

Apart from anything else this will have been interesting opportunity to see clearly how state benefits impact poverty, and also (once again) give some indication of the skewed impact of the impact of austerity (which remains, while un-named, still at the centre of UK politics)

#benefits #poverty #austerity

@ChrisMayLA6 but we mustn’t forget that the overall benefit cap - which principally affects larger families - remains in place

The 2-child cap was a wicked punishment of poor children and women but its removal, imo, is yet more #uklabour tinkering at the margins while refusing to acknowledge the reality of people’s lives experience and the rigged economic system that perpetuates grotesque levels of inequality

@ChrisMayLA6 Scotland mitigated the 2 child cap with our own benefit which has raised many children and their families out of poverty 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
@ChrisMayLA6 There's another aspect to that. The cap was an illustration of the " Why should I..." mentality. "Why should I pay for schools I don't have kids/use private schools" "Why should I pay for the NHS I have insurance". And so on. In this case it was "Why should I pay for other people's large family". Which politically is the hardest to resist, I guess. Trouble is it's the kids who suffer- not the parents.

@TerryBTwo

The perennial tax 'problem'.... but that's also reflective of the growing individuation of tax politics into a contract approach - what do I get for what I pay

@ChrisMayLA6 That's a natural progression of telling people that tax is somehow an evil that should be minimised rather than a shared responsibility for the good of society.
@ChrisMayLA6 But let's not also forget, when the Government starts crowing about how amazing they are for doing so, that they spent a long time refusing to lift the cap, justifying the existence of the cap, and kicking their own MPs out of the party for suggesting lifting the cap.

@beemoh

yes, absolutely fair comment; they posted away much of the political benefit by being so reluctant & being forced (in effect) to do so....