The Labour Party is already facing its own internal division, the question of the two child benefit cap. With a majority of 172 the amendment to remove the cap was faced down easily early this evening.
However, the fissure poses serious questions about the tax and benefit system.
Broadly, the system is anti-family and anti-children. It is perhaps one of the failures of the 14 years of Conservative government that we did not tackle this problem.
As Conservatives we ought to be on the side of the family and make the prospect of raising the next generation as attractive as possible. But we did not.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is concerned about how Labour will target the family
GB NEWS
Take the example of child care.
The system will pay for families’ child care if both parents go to work.
Keir Starmer won a resounding Labour majority
PA
No such support is offered to families if one parent decides to stay at home and raise their own children. So the state will pay anyone to look after your child, as long as it’s not a parent.
A mass of literature points to the benefits of children being raised by their own parents, and yet the system encourages the opposite.
This extends to the tax system.
If one parent earns all of the income, they pay more in tax than if the income is split between both parents.
So even if the same amount of money is being earned across the family, the system punishes families with a parent who stays at home.
Universal Credit claimants face the risk of losing payments if they get married or admit to cohabiting with their partner if their partner earns more than the threshold, again discouraging people from starting families.
In the past, we have covered the phenomenon of anomalous marginal tax rates that penalise families earning certain amounts based on how many children they have, with some rates being as high as 70 per cent.
But the list goes on. Whether it’s divorce law reform or other tax and benefit incentives, the collapse of marriage and families, as well as the declining birth rate, lead to some of the most fundamental societal ills.
The problem is that we had a chance to address the structural problem during the years of repeated Conservative governments but now Labour is in charge, and the socialist has always seen the state as a competitor with, and to, the family.
A vast, socialist, majority in the Commons, means the war on the family will be waged more ruthlessly than ever before.
Source Agencies
