limit child benefit to three children?

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Tories consider limiting child benefit to three children

Personally I would like to see this applied prospectively rather than retrospectively.

[FatLazyContractor]

Why don't they reduce it to zero children?!

[TheFaQQer]

Ridiculous idea, but it takes attention away from the debate debacle.

1/7 families would be affected by it, and by enforcing it for future families rather than those who already have three or more children, you have to wait 18 years to get the maximum benefit from a policy that will "save" £300million a year.

Alternatively, HMRC could have raised that same amount immediately by getting Vodafone to pay their tax bill rather than writing it off

[Platypus]

I'd limit it to two, and implement it now. Correct, full savings won't be made for 18 years. But it will I would hope go some way to making clear to people that while having a family might be a hoomun right, getting the state to pay for it is not.

[d000hg]

Doing this for existing families is a terrible, awful idea. IF you believe that benefits are calculated to be the amount needed to support the family, what exactly is a family with unsupported children going to do? If the benefits can be stretched to feed 4-5 kids, the benefits are too high... if they're a family genuinely looking for work then "get a job" isn't a response worth hearing.

The government can't just stop feeding children.

Although the same argument applies even if this was brought in only to new children born in 2016 or later... once the parents HAVE the kid are you really going to say "sorry, you should've been more careful"? That's the kind of thing which leads to increasing abortion rates.

[VectraMan]

Being the third or fourth child is not really the child's fault though is it?

Personally I'd get rid of all child benefit and introduce a 43-year old man benefit. But that's just me.

[d000hg]

I'd limit it to two, and implement it now. Correct, full savings won't be made for 18 years. But it will I would hope go some way to making clear to people that while having a family might be a hoomun right, getting the state to pay for it is not.

But getting food and a roof over your head as a child should be in any civilised country.

[MicrosoftBob]

As a bonus less jihadis will be born here

[Platypus]

But getting food and a roof over your head as a child should be in any civilised country.

Quite right. But child benefit should be a bonus or support for responsible parents, not a meal ticket for fat slags.

Oh, and P.S. £20 a week doesn't put a roof over anyone's head. Those economics only work if you have 4-5 or more kids

[d000hg]

Is that what you get?

It does if you are already getting housing+JSA. £20pw as the extra cost per child, sounds reasonable(ish).