People’s situations are dynamic and change - the two-child limit ignores this
Michelle is now sharing her experience of the two-child limit - “we’ve struggled massively... we didn’t know about this policy... I’ve struggled mostly because of childcare”
Michelle: “if it hadn’t been for my my mum I’d have been at the food bank It’s wrong to assume that everybody plans their children because they don’t”
Camilla from @UniversityLeeds spoke to several families affected by the two-child limit - the stories were difficult to hear
“It’s the normal things we take for granted that make the difference” - @alisonthewliss on the stories we heard from families on what they’re going without as a result of the two-child limit
Jenny from @womensaid is now sharing stories from refuges - and the awful choices women face when they are victims of domestic abuse and become pregnant with a third of subsequent child.
“I didn’t want any more children...” - a survivor of domestic abuse was persuaded to have a baby by her abusive partner, and then found out about the two-child limit when she arrived at a refuge
.@alisonthewliss responds to the #allkidscount report - “I didn’t want to be proven right on this” - Alison has tirelessly campaigned against the policy
“There’s a lot more we need to do to put this in front of ministers and make sure they know the full impact of it” - @alisonthewliss
.@heidiallen75 - “these are children - for that reason alone it’s a terrible policy”
Baroness Lister: “I don’t think I’ve got as angry reading a report as reading All Kids Count”
It pushes children deeper into poverty, undermines govt policies on domestic abuse and family conflict - Ruth Lister
Seb from @refugeecouncil outlining why they oppose the two-child limit - “families have experienced severe trauma... and have no financial backup... and the two-child limit undermines the gov’s policy on integration”
The @refugeecouncil’s clients want to move on with their lives - the two-child limit gets in the way of that
.@ZoeCharleswort1 from Policy in Practice highlights that councils are also bringing the two-child limit in in council tax support
Chaya from Interlink Foundation - children are a blessing, not a stigma
“For women to be driven to termination because of lack of financial support is a very sad place to be” - Chaya from Interlink Foundation
.@MaeveSherlock on the social security system: people will put in and take out at different times of their lives and it’s there for when unexpected things happen
.@RapeCrisisEandW highlights the misunderstandings of rape that underpin the rape clause in the two-child limit - eg, women have to leave their abuser to get exception
.@alisonthewliss also points out the problem of the rape clause in Northern Ireland because there is an obligation to report crimes.
Call to action from @alisonthewliss as the meeting draws to a close - make sure everyone knows this is happening
You can read more about the cross-organisational campaign challenging the policy at cpag.org.uk/allkidscount
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The #BenefitCap was first announced #OnThisDay in 2010 by George Osborne at the Conservative party conf. It came in in 2013. It breaks the vital link between the support you need & the support you get from our social security system & pushes kids into poverty [thread] 1/17
Originally the #BenefitCap was based on the premise that non-working households shouldn’t receive more than the average earnings of working households. But this compares incomes with earnings. A working family on £26k could also receive a range of benefits and tax credits. 2/17
The #BenefitCap was then lowered in 2016 and is set at a completely arbitrary level. And this was just as the cost of living was starting to rise. 3/17
Some stories from our latest report, out today, with @churchofengland. Some may sound familiar:
“I lost my job beginning of March and been unable to find a new job as my son’s nursery closed... I am in more debt and struggling to pay bills and feed my son and myself.”
A Dad, Graham, described not being able to cheer his daughter up by giving her money:
“I’ll break down and cry some days, I’ll go to my bedroom and cry, because I can’t give her £20 to go and buy something.”
“They can see there is no money... especially also for the 19-year-old, I don’t want her to know everything that’s happening because she gets very bad panic attacks and anxiety. I try to hide as much as I can from them, but yes, they know.”
We've been monitoring the social security system during #COVID19 through our Early Warning System - here are some of the issues we're seeing again and again 1/11
1. Universal credit – the main benefit available to low-income families – is not available to everyone, even though working is now much more difficult for many. 2/11
2. There has been no financial support for children (other than free school meal vouchers for a minority). 3/11
#NationalFoodStrategy We welcome the call for an extension of entitlement to free school meals. Our CEO @alisongcpag: “Extending free school meals to kids whose parents receive universal credit would be a good step forward in protecting most disadvantaged... 1/n
"...but the evidence shows that free school meals for all kids would achieve so much more. When lunch is free for all, children’s school results are boosted, their diet improves and parents struggling to make ends meet have more to spend on nutritious breakfasts & dinners... 2/n
"The support for @MarcusRashford's recent intervention showed there’s a feeling across the UK that we’ve become too mean about providing for children in school. We don’t means-test any other part of the school day so why do we food – so critical for children’s development? 3/4
Benefit-capped working mother wins test case against DWP's irrational universal credit rules for assessing earnings - Out statement on today's judgment: cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/new…
"Our client is a working single mother who has done everything she can to support her children but has been trapped by the absurd rigidity of universal credit rules which have penalised her for being paid 4-weekly rather than monthly –a circumstance that was beyond her control...
"Far from making work pay, UC left our client humiliated & in financial misery – resorting to food banks to feed her kids... benefit-capped –even though somebody doing exactly the same work, same No of hours at the same pay would be exempt because their employer pays monthly...