Britain’s economy would be fucked if people who can’t afford to have kids stopped having kids.
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I also think it is helpful to view these sorts of benefits as being an investment towards having a better society in ten to fifteen years, and beyond that. Kids who arent living in poverty will be healthier, they’ll do better at school, they’ll be less likely to end up involved in crime.
This means they’re more likely to end up in employment and contributing to society via the work they’re doing and the taxes paid as a result of it. This means they’ll have bigger spending power too, further aiding the economy, as they’ll be pumping more money back in than they otherwise would be. Their better health will mean less of a burden on the NHS, a benefit that will be felt not just ten years into the future, but for the rest of these kids lives til old age. Being in employment means fewer people being in prison, and having to lock up loads of people is a cost to the taxpayer. Most people in prisons are men, men are still often the main provider for families, and men going to prison can often plunge families into poverty and into relying on benefits. So not only is it a cost to the taxpayer to lock people up, it often also leads to the the taxpayer needing to spend more on social security programmes for the people left behind by the guy who is now in prison.
So even if you don’t really give a shit about the poor and care more about them being a tax burden that you and other hardworking folk are paying for, if you take emotion out of it and think pragmatically, its still worth giving these feckless poor people money they don’t deserve because in the long run it’s going to prevent even larger sums of taxpayer money being spent.
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2008 crisis as well.
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I commend you for your willingness to take this attitude, I’ve seen you react in this way before.
Things would be much better if more of us were willing to do this instead of digging our heels in and being too proud to admit we might not have given something quite enough thought before forming an opinion, and standing by our initial opinion til death 
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Don’t back down double down
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Doon*, surely
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Interestingly enough, I’m one of these people.
I lost my job 3 months before my first born was due in 2017.
Then my daughter was born the week we went into lockdowns here in the UK.
Then lost my next job through tech layoffs in Jan 2023. 6 months after finally getting onto the housing ladder with a mortgage. I was decisive to buy a house just before inflation went through the roof.
But I don’t expect the Government to pay for my or my children’s existence. That’s my job & responsibility.
I’ve paid my taxes and have no issue with it being used to help people who have come under hard times.
But if I decide to continue having kids; I should be the one to pay for them; not everyone else.
I mean, you’re right it is a harsh justification. But I’ve spoken to the Mums at the playground; none of them work.
Then suddenly they’re all dressed like the Queen after Giro day and have the latest iPhone, why is that? But their kids haven’t been washed in weeks and still can’t manage to buy them some shoes.
I too left London in 2015 with £6k to my name and moved to Brighouse; it’s poor as fuck over there - but it gave me a good chance to restart my life and make something of myself.
EDIT: These places should have aspirations for having kids and a family for sure. But they need to figure out how they’re going to pay for them. Cause it’s 10x more expensive to have 1 child in 2024 than it was in 1994. 2 is bearable… but if you have nothing to your name and you just keep having kids; it’s putting a strain on the whole system.
That’s it then. @SuperArsenal1886 has spoken to some mums in the playground and none of them work and all have the latest iPhone so the two child benefit cap should remain in place.
Do you know how ridiculous a point it is that people still peddle this bullshit
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Who does this? You’re talking about the very few examples of people who have kids without the means to provide for them.
I’d love to know how you reached the conclusion that there’s scores of families out there having kids but not being able to afford to pay for them.
I’ll check the ONS to see what sort of data there is on that.
Anecdotally, during drop offs and pick ups you get to hear all kinds of wild stories from people’s lives.
People are suffering, there’s no doubt about it. But I feel like a good portion could’ve prevented the problems they’re having too.
I just don’t think it helps anybody by sorting out all their problems for them, when they need to learn how to figure stuff out for themselves.
Sometimes I think the UK, enables weaponised incompetence on a large scale.
That’s what the Government are there for, to help people in crisis, not for people to work things out for themselves. What do you expect them to do deal in drugs or prostitute themselves?
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There doesn’t seem to be enough money to fund these initiatives, that’s my main concern here. At least not until we can find a way to tax the mega rich appropriately.
Zarah Sultana proposed a 1% wealth tax on assets worth over £10m
@SuperArsenal1886 I’ll like to approach this a little differently. Out of interest do you think Nigerians are having too many kids as per your belief despite it’s absurd (but understandable) poverty that’s lasted for eons? That’s generations worth of people you could be suggesting to not have kids because they can’t ‘afford’ it. Let’s think about how your idea works in practice here if people followed it to the letter…
There seems to be enough money to fund wars not involving the UK
Seems like a decent idea tbh!
Yups, I do think we’re having too many kids in Nigeria. But it’s a fabric of our culture that’s been around for ages as you suggest, it’s likely not going to change any time soon - unless a China type measure was introduced.
As for Nigerians here in the UK, I think after a generation or two; British-born Nigerians would be a lot more malleable to the idea of not having children they can’t afford compared to their Nigerian-born parents + g-parents.
For example, from my generation (90s/Millennials) — I don’t know any British-born Nigerians that have more than 2 children - but I don’t know the official stats on that.
that’s true, it’s something I’ve never understood.
There’s always money. There was money for the shitty Rwanda scheme, the track and trace system, the inadequate PPE, to send to Ukraine.
The government always manages to find money to fund its own initiatives but when it comes to wanting to help people we’re always being told the money isn’t there.
If you genuinely believe the rhetoric of their not being money then you need to take a long and hard look at how, despite being told for 14 years by the Tories we had no money, they found BILLIONS when it came to funding their vanity projects and bullshit ideas.
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That’s true actually, I was shocked when I discovered the Rwanda plan already cost some £700m or something to that effect with up to billions planned for its use.
That policy was disastrous and resulted in weird social decisions within the culture like aborting girls and an a terrible gender imbalance. I don’t think you’d want that mate in your ancestral homeland.
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