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YMB...It might surprise you to know that I agree with most of what you have said. We can't go on rewarding fecklessness with yet more of us taxpayers hard-earned cash. I can't see the point in giving parents an extra, tax-free lump sum every month of £58:70 a month, every time they have another child, a child that they can't afford to have or to keep. Why do the rest of us have to pay to bring up a child that isn't ours ? Whoever is going to win next May, should have the courage to stop paying out child benefit for more than perhaps 3 or 4 kids. We can do this on a sliding scale, over a period of time if necessary but its a step that is well over due. When I was a nipper, Mums only got Family Allowance for the 2nd and subsequent children, not the first.
But I can't agree with you in taking children away from their parents without a proper reason. If we were to do that, 100,000's of children may be involved and just where is the cash going to come from to pay for all the infrastructure that would need to be put in place to cope with such huge numbers ? We already have a problem housing the children that are in care now, without adding to the numbers.
One of the main causes of poverty, child or not, is unemployment, whether it is beyond peoples control, or part of a life-style choice by the lazy and feckless. This is closely followed by low rates of pay. One of the key recommendations of this Report is for Britain to be a "living wage" economy but 2025. Its nothing short of scandalous that people should be working only 10-15 hours a week, often on a zero-hours contract, and always on the minimum wage.