Sunday 28 October 2012

Wrong Coalition Cuts

Tory MP Philip Davies has been padalling the ususal right wing myths about benefits. Having extra children is he says an incentive for bigger housing and much more benefits. He knows it because he read it in a newspaper, presumably the awful Mail.

In a debate on sunday politics this morning Child Poverty Action Group point out that there is no evidence that welfare is any incentive to fertility.

When challenged to produce evidence that people have more kids for extra benefits @PhilipDaviesMP says people have been complaining to him about families with 8, 9, 10 childen!

There may only be 190 families with 10 children! Not such a big problem perhaps, and perhaps one solved with information. Most of us couldnt imagine coping with 10. And if the Tories cut their benefits its the children would suffer, thats why benefits should increase with more children.


Some statistics:
* Less than 2 per cent of single parents are teenagers
* The median age of single parents is 38.1
* Around half of single parents had their children within marriage – 49 per cent are separated from marriage, divorced or widowed
* 59.2 per cent of single parents are in work, up 14.5 percentage points since 1997
* The employment rate for single parents varies depending on the age of their youngest child. Once their children are 12 or over, single parents’ employment rate is similar to, or higher than, the employment rate for mothers in couples (71 per cent of single parents whose child is 11-15 are in work).
http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/content.aspx?CategoryID=365


Child Poverty Action Group's Alison Garnham, has spoken out against proposals from George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith that unemployed families should have their benefits capped if they have more children.

She said: “With this abhorrent proposal, the Chancellor is saying that some children will be marked out from birth as second class citizens with their lives worth less than others.

“We were told it would be those with the broadest shoulders who have the greatest burden, but the richest are getting tax cuts and it is those with the narrowest shoulders, our poorest children, who are being made to pay the price.

“It ignores the fact that most unemployed parents are going through a revolving door in and out of work due to lack of job security. We need to address the growing problems of short-term and insecure jobs and the crisis of high youth unemployment instead of punishing people for their deprivation.

“The Chancellor is utterly wrong to claim that families out of work are better off having more children. If a family without work has another child, the shortfall relative to a family’s minimum need increases and parents must make even more sacrifices to meet their children’s needs. But working families do better because on top of wages they can get in-work benefits like tax credits and housing benefit.”


http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/cpag-responds-proposals-limit-number-children-whom-benefits-can-be-received

"Under current government policies, child poverty is projected to rise from 2012/13"

http://www.cpag.org.uk/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

3 comments:

gareth said...

Your spelling is terrible.

gareth said...

Do spellcheck before you publish.

Adrian Windisch said...

It is poor i know. My fingers just seem to big to type accurately on a phone. I just dont get much time on a laptop these days.