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Anger over child benefit cuts

Published 5 Oct 2010 10:30 Mobiles Print Comments 18 Comments

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by Rob Sleigh

CHILDREN and family charities and playgroups have reacted angrily to the scrapping of universal child benefits.

Chancellor George Osborne announced yesterday (Monday) that middle-income families will no longer receive the benefit if one or more parents are in the top tax bracket, earning £44,000 a year or more.

Ruth Fleming, senior organiser at the Home-Start family support charity in Lyon Square, Tilehurst, said: “I think it could be quite tough for middle-income Britain with young families.

“Some people have quite hefty mortgages and as the cost of living increases, they’re going to have higher bills to pay and, negatively, there will be an impact on family life.”

Vanessa Best, deputy supervisor at Pangbourne Valley Playgroup, based in Kennedy Drive, said: “They’re trying to encourage mothers to work, so it penalizes you for earning more money. It always seems to hit that level. It’s almost as if, if you don’t work, you’re better off and you get more benefits.”

Jan Fishwick, chief executive of Parents and Children Together (PACT) in South Street, Reading said: “We need to be sure that more disadvantaged children benefit from the state child benefit system. I’m very keen that those families will continue to get the benefit.

"I believe that those families earning less than £44,000 don’t need it as much. It’s not as fair for mothers who choose to stay at home to look after their children. Parents who choose to stay behind at home to look after their children, they don’t get as fair a deal.

"I’m very much in favour of families on lower income still receiving the benefits. If that means some families on higher incomes have to forgo their benefits, rather than people on lower income paying more tax, then I think that’s fairer.”

Natasha Van Vliet, director of Development at Family Resource Centre in Milford Road, Reading, said: “We’re here to help families and to ensure that they reach their full potential. Any financial implications on them are going to have an impact.

“What we will be doing is making sure our Benefits Information team are up to speed on what these cuts are going to mean for families. We will also be encouraging families to get in touch with us to find out whether they are likely to be one of the families to have their benefits cut and, if so, what the impact will be on their family’s income.

"Our team will help them to try to find ways to save money so the impact isn’t so harsh for them. There are quite a few working families in Reading and across the South East, so it is likely to be an area where families will feel the pinch. Anything that is going to cause an impact on children is not to be taken lightly. The welfare of children should be first and foremost, so hopefully the Government has considered it at great length.”

Labour’s childrens’ services spokesman Cllr John Ennis said: “Last year they made a full commitment to keep universal benefits. They said the cuts would go somewhere else, but now they’ve changed their minds. One parent on £50,000 will lose out, whereas two parents on £40,000 won’t. Hard-working families on modest incomes will lose out. Very wealthy families will also lose out, but they can afford to. One parent earning that money will be worse off than two parents earning. I don’t think they’ve thought it through.”

Critics have already rounded on the chancellor for the “unfair” nature of the cut, as single-earner households will feel the pinch if one parent earns £44,000 and another stays at home, but dual-income familes where both parents earn just under the cap will keep all their child benefit.

Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: “It’s very unfair that families with children should once again be taking the hit. Child benefit is a strategic benefit that works. It’s simple and everybody understands it. Even in better-off families parents face the costs of raising children.”

But other thinktanks, including Demos and Civitas, have backed the move saying it is unfair that people being taxed on £18,000 earnings are helping to support the children of those on £50,000.

Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said it was not a change the Government would want to make in an ideal world, but that money had to be saved to get the deficit under control.

The £1bn saved by cutting child benefit is expected to ultimately help fund the Government’s push towards a 'universal benefit’, merging the current complex system of benefits and tax credits into a cheaper scheme which ministers say will always encourage work.

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