Latest news with #childbenefits
BBC News
18-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Mothers in legal contest over two-child benefit cap 'rape clause'
Two women who had children when they were in violent and controlling relationships are claiming they were unfairly denied child mothers, identified only as LMN and EFG, launched a challenge to the universal credit two-child cap at Leeds Administrative Court on Tuesday and the so-called "rape clause".The exception allows for financial support for a child conceived non-consensually if that child is the third or subsequent child, but does not apply to further children if a mother's first two children were conceived after Monaghan KC, representing the women, said the rule was "irrational" and breached the women's right not to be discriminated against. She told the court that both women were young and vulnerable when they began relationships in their teens and first became explained that they were subjected to regular violence and coercion, with one describing how she was choked to unconsciousness and raped multiple times. 'Anomaly in the rules' Ms Monaghan explained how LMN had older children in care and two living with her, but then one of the older children returned to her then had three children living in her home, but she was refused an exception to the two-child limit under these "ordering provisions" relating to non-consensual Monaghan said EFG had two children who were conceived non-consensually and then another from a consensual was initially paid the child element of universal credit for this third child, but this was later rescinded, after a fourth child was Monaghan told the judge, Mrs Justice Collins Rice, the state had an obligation under Article 3, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to ensure that "women are not penalised" and "they have the resources to support themselves".The barrister said that, if this anomaly in the rules was rectified, "we are talking about a drop in an ocean", in the face of a £300 billion-plus national benefits of the women, whose representation is being provided by Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), were in court on Tuesday. Galina Ward KC, for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), told the court that the exceptions to the two-child cap, which also include circumstances around kinship care and multiple births, were intended to "kick-in" when women are not able to make a choice about having a said this case was "fundamentally different" to one which was the subject of a 2018 High Court ruling that similar exception rules relating to children in kinship care arrangements were said the DWP also did not accept that women who have non-consensually conceived children and then choose to have another child "are making a fundamentally different choice" to women whose children are consensually case continues on. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Sky News
29-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Starmer says government 'will look at' scrapping two-child benefits limit
Sir Keir Starmer has said his government "will look at" scrapping the two-child benefits limit. In his strongest hint yet that he will perform a U-turn - when asked if he would scrap the two-child benefit cap, Sir Keir said: "We'll look at all options of driving down child poverty." The cap means families can only claim child tax credit and universal credit for their first two children, if they were born after April 2017. It was introduced in 2017 by the Conservative government, and in 2023, Sir Keir ruled out scrapping it. However, as Labour came to power last year, he said the party wanted to remove the cap but only when fiscal conditions allowed. But he then doubled down on refusing to lift it, suspending seven Labour MPs shortly after the election victory for voting with the SNP to remove the cap. 1:01 Ministers had toed the party line for months, but the narrative started to shift in May, with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson telling Sky News on Tuesday lifting the cap is "not off the table" - and "it's certainly something that we're considering". Sir Keir was also reported to have asked the Treasury to see how scrapping it could be funded. His words on Thursday are his strongest indication yet, that he could lift the cap soon. 1:01 It would mean a second benefits U-turn after he made a shock announcement last week that he was going to relax the winter fuel payment cut. The policy, announced soon after Labour won the election, has caused anger among Sir Keir's own MPs as it restricted the previously universal payment to those who receive pension credit. It will now be available to "more pensioners", but details of who and when have not been revealed.
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Farage Backs Benefit Hikes in Challenge From Starmer's Left
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage vowed to scrap a limit on child benefits, vying for traditional Labour voters and putting pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reverse his own stance on the controversial policy. Farage — the Donald Trump-supporting Euro-skeptic whose party is leading British opinion polls — came out in favor of removing the two-child cap on public benefits during a news conference on Tuesday. The move appeared to be an effort to by Farage to position himself to the left of Labour on one area of tax policy, which Starmer has so far maintained despite a push from some in his party to change course.
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Nigel Farage: Reform UK want to make it easier for people to have children
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he wants to make it easier for people to have children, as he confirmed his party would back more generous tax breaks for married people and scrap the two-child benefit limit. In a speech in central London, Farage said he wanted to lift the cap "not because we support a benefits culture" but because it would make things easier for lower-paid workers. He also said he would reverse the government's cuts which saw the winter fuel payment withdrawn from 10 million pensioners. Liberal Democrat Sir Ed Davey accused Reform UK of making "huge unfunded spending pledges and only vague promises of fantasy savings". Farage's intervention comes as the prime minister faces pressure from his own MPs on government spending decisions, including cuts to disability Labour MPs also want to see the abolition of the two-child benefit cap, which prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said the government is considering lifting the cap but that it would "cost a lot of money". Last week, Sir Keir announced plans to ease cuts to winter fuel payments, but has not yet set out how many pensioners would see the payment reinstated or how it would be paid for. During a wide-ranging speech, Farage also said his party's "biggest aspiration" was to lift the salary level at which people start paying income tax to £20,000."These proposals are expensive but we genuinely believe we can pay for it," he said. He said the measures would be paid for by scrapping net-zero climate measures, stopping hotel accommodation for asylum seekers, ending diversity and equality initiatives in the public sector and cutting the number of quangos - bodies which are funded by taxpayers but not directly controlled by central government. The Reform UK leader said removing the two-child benefit cap, which would cost an estimated £3.5bn, was "not a silver bullet" but would help making tax breaks for married people more generous, he said he was "not moralising" but argued that "making marriage a little bit more important" was "the right thing to do," as it gave children "the best chance of success".
Bloomberg
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Reform UK's Farage to Vow Benefit Hikes in Attack on Starmer
Nigel Farage is extending his bid to win over traditional Labour voters by announcing that his party would scrap a controversial limit on child benefits and fully reinstate utility-bill subsidies for the elderly if it came into power. The Reform UK leader is set to hold a press conference Tuesday morning during which he will claim the policies would be funded by abandoning net-zero emissions pledges, getting rid of accommodation for asylum seekers and shaving expenditures on quasi-government agencies — known as quangos — by 5%.
