Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock calls for two-child benefit cap to be scrapped
Labour must scrap the two-child cap on benefits to lift children out of poverty, the party’s former leader Neil Kinnock has said.
Rising levels of poverty “would make Charles Dickens furious”, Lord Kinnock said in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, in which he urged ministers to introduce a wealth tax.
Lord Kinnock, who led Labour in opposition between 1983 and 1992, is the latest senior party figure to pressure the current Government to end the two-child limit on benefits.
Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown recently said ending the two-child limit, as well as the benefit cap, would be among the most effective ways of reducing child poverty.
‘Wealth tax’
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Lord Kinnock acknowledged the Government may not be able to scrap the two-child cap “all at once”.
He added: “But I really want them to move in that direction because the figures are that if that did occur it would mean that about 600,000 kids fewer are in poverty.”
Lord Kinnock suggested such a move could be funded by a wealth tax on the “top 1%”, telling the Sunday Mirror: “I know it’s the economics of Robin Hood, but I don’t think there is anything terribly bad about that.”
He warned that over the decade and a half the Conservatives were in power child poverty gradually rose.
‘Voiceless’
The Labour peer told the newspaper: “In 15 years, starting from a position where beneficial change was taking place, we’ve got to the place that would make Charles Dickens furious.
“It’s been allowed to happen because the kids are voiceless and their parents feel powerless. I defy anybody to see a child in need and not want to help.”
The two-child limit has been long-criticised by Labour backbenchers as a driver of child poverty.
Ministers are expected to set out plans to tackle child poverty at the budget in the autumn.
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This man is in the wrong party, needs to join Plaid Cymru or Jeremy Corbyn’s new party if he wants to get rid of the child benefit cap, this
tory“Labour” government has zero interest in doing so.The numbers behind welfare spending are incredibly high. The government needs to find an extra 35 billion just by the end of this parliament, and that’s only in work benefits. In my view it’s unsustainable at a time when so much is being cut- education, policing, local government, economic development etc. It feels like government are sacrificing the future to avoid difficult decisions today.
Then start by not paying state pension benefits to millionaires before putting kids into poverty.
..or people wise up and keep to 2 kids per family unit ! Odd innit that many family units with loads of kids are the ones who claim they can’t make end meet.
I happen to agree with sorting out the state pension entitlement of the upper income/wealthy groups but that could be recovered via a higher tax band and a modest wealth tax which everybody seems to be scared of.
Yet the birth rate is falling. Discouraging people to have kids is going to make that worse. This is the right once again slapping themselves in the face because in their rush to hate on poor people they’re creating an economic situation where we need to import more workers to pay for the crippling costs of older people. And giving it out just to claw it back doesn’t make much sense nor does it make a direct impact on the size of the benefits bill. It would be much simpler to send a letter each year asking retired people to… Read more »
Self certification would really work a treat when a pension is at stake, I don’t think !!! Much better to pay it and recover through tax receipts as DWP notifies your pension payments to HMRC and they issue a coding adjustment against other pensions and incomes. That system works so no need to mess about with it. Just change the bandings to catch the higher income cases.
You need to consider assets not just income which could be deferred in the case of private pensions, or not paid into UK bank accounts in the case of overseas investments.
Of course some might lie but then they’ll be banged up for benefit fraud when someone with knowledge of their finances tips off HMRC.
Who’s going to pay for it? Don’t have kids if you can’t pay for them; it should not be up to the rest of society to pay for other people. Quite simple really.
The state already pays people to have kids, with child benefit, free education and VAT discounts on clothing, for example.