Four years of the Tories’ two-child limit: Here’s what it’s done
If the Tory policy was scrapped now 200,000 children would immediately be lifted out of poverty
If the Tory policy was scrapped now 200,000 children would immediately be lifted out of poverty
The impact of scheduled benefit changes will dwarf national insurance reform
In 2011, 24 per cent of mothers said welfare reforms had forced them to give up work
Annual cuts to key benefits will take £17.9bn a year from working families by 2016/17
Labour’s record on child poverty is an admirable one. So it’s even more of a shame that Ed Balls has allowed the axe to fall on child benefit.
It is well known these cuts have been savage, unfair, and that they seriously affect the disabled. But what if they actually targeted the disabled, hitting them the hardest, piling all the harshest cuts on the services that are actually the most vital?
If there is anything that really gets up the nose of the right it’s single mothers on benefits. No, in fact it’s any parents claiming benefits, as the sorry media sage around Mick Philpott demonstrated.
It is disappointing to again see the BBC reporting government statistics on the benefits cap without even the remotest hint of challenge as to what they mean.
Tory MEP Daniel Hannan has a piece in today’s Telegraph in which he claims the left has “lost its moral compass on welfare”.
A cap on the total amount of benefits that people receive begins rolling out across England, Wales and Scotland today. The cap applies to those aged 16 to 64 and means that couples and lone parents will no longer receive more than £500 a week, with single people limited to a maximum of £350 a week.