Labour says keeping child benefit cap is ‘virility test’ for Starmer

July 22, 2024 –
From Socialist Worker (UK)

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Keir Starmer—kid starver (Picture: Flickr/ Keir Starmer)

While over 1.6 million children languish in poverty due to the two-child benefit cap, a Labour official described keeping it as a “virility test” for the new government.

The remarks came as Keir Starmer faced down a rebellion among Labour MPs this week over his refusals to scrap the Tory policy in the King’s Speech.

The Labour official said Starmer was worried about being “seen to lose its first fight with the Labour left”. Chancellor Rachel Reeves tried to deflect blame, saying the previous Tory government had “left it to us” to make the “tough decisions”. But when Reeves and other politicians talk of “tough decisions”, it’s never about being tough on the super-rich.

It always means making life harder for working class people like mother of three Roxanne, a social worker from South Wales. “There is an awful lot more financial pressure because of my third child—I’ve ended up having to work extra hours,” she told Socialist Worker. “But then you have to pay childcare costs and you can’t claim for the third child. The more you’re working the less time you have with the girls and, as a single mum, there’s a lot more guilt for not being around.”

Roxanne explained that, under Universal Credit rules, “the more you work the less money you get”. “Childcare costs are absolutely extortionate and a lot of childcare only covers Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm,” she said. “I work in social care where a lot of it is unsociable hours.” The Tory cap restricts welfare payments to the first two children, meaning those with more children born after April 2017 miss out on up to £3,500 per year per child.

Abolishing it would cost between £2.5 billion and £3.6 billion, according to the Resolution Foundation. The think tank said the cost was “low compared to the harm the policy causes” for children’s education, health and quality of life. Roxanne, who works in children’s social care, explained that there’s “more intervention” when children are in poverty.

She described how social services “have to get involved when mums cannot afford food”. And “more children are coming into the system” because “families aren’t coping”. Labour claims it’s unaffordable, but the money is there to scrap the cap—and much more.

The Green Party, for example, called for scrapping the cap through increasing capital gains tax to raise £16 billion a year. This move would hit a small minority of rich people by taxing capital gains—profits from selling shares or second homes—at the same rate as income tax.

But even such a mild measure is too much for Starmer because he wants to reassure toffs that Labour is no threat to them. Starmer announced a new task force to “devise a strategy to drive down” child poverty.

Children in poverty don’t need a task force. They need a boost to welfare provision—and it will take campaigning outside parliament to force Labour to deliver.

Source: Socialistworker.co.uk