Rachel Reeves to allow bigger families to claim more benefits in £3bn move | Politics | News

Rachel Reeves will allow parents with larger families to claim more benefits. The Chancellor, who is preparing to deceive millions with tax increases, said children “should not be punished just because their parents don’t have a lot of money”.

The comments are the strongest indication yet that he could scrap the two-child limit on working age benefits introduced by the Conservatives in 2017. The move will cost the Chancellor £3bn at a time when he is trying to plug a £30bn black hole in the public finances. But speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live, Ms Reeves said she did not want to see benefits limited by family size.

“I don’t think it’s right for a child to be punished for being in a larger family through no fault of their own,” he added.

“And so we will take action against child poverty. The last Labor government proudly reduced child poverty and we will reduce child poverty too.”

He added that there are “many reasons” why parents who decide to have three or four children may find their financial situations change.

Asked whether her changes would mean more working people paying into benefits, Ms Reeves said: “I was listening to the radio, getting ready for work this morning, and there was a story about the number of people who are homeless in Britain today.

“Many of these will involve families. They may not be living on the streets but they may be living in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation or sleeping on someone’s floor in someone’s living room.”

“There are real human costs now, of course, but there is also an economic cost because the cost of temporary accommodation has skyrocketed and continues to rise.

“The cost of educational attainment lost due to children constantly having to go to school to move to a new location, the cost of poor quality accommodation and lack of good nutrition to both people’s physical and mental health.

“Social costs and personal costs are the most important, but I don’t think we can overlook the costs to our economy of allowing child poverty to go unchecked. “And after all, a child shouldn’t be punished just because their parents don’t have a lot of money.

“There are many reasons why people find themselves in difficult times after deciding to have three or four children.

“There will also be things like adoption or foster care. There are many different reasons why families change shape and size over time.”

The Chancellor has all but confirmed that Labor will break its key manifesto commitments on tax within two weeks.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday: “It’s of course possible to stick to the manifesto commitments, but that would require things like deep cuts to capital spending, and the reason our productivity and growth has been so weak over the last few years is that governments always take the easy option of cutting investment in rail and road projects, energy projects, digital infrastructure.”

“As a result, we never managed to restore our productivity to the level it was before the financial crisis.

“So we always have choices to make, and I promised during the election campaign that I would bring stability back to our economy, and I can promise now, I will always do what I think is right for our country.”

He added: “I will do what I believe is right for our country, and that sometimes means making decisions that I think are in our national interest, not always the easy decisions.”

The Resolution Foundation, a left-wing think tank closely tied to the Labor movement, is pushing for policy that would increase income tax by 2p and cut National Insurance by the same amount.

This will shift the burden onto those who do not pay National Insurance, including pensioners, the self-employed and homeowners, and will not affect most workers’ pay packets.

Fears are growing that the Chancellor will deal a double whammy to the OAPs by increasing income tax and extending the freeze on the lower tax threshold.

Campaigners warned the measures were more unpopular than when Ms Reeves usurped her winter fuel allowance.

Ahead of the November 26 demonstration, more than 160,000 people signed a petition demanding a halt to the so-called “pension tax.”