Arbitrary cap on the number of children the Government will support is not only cruel, but is bad policy – Debbie Abrahams

Debbie
Abrahams MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting on the
Government’s two child limit on tax credits, said:

“An arbitrary cap on the number of
children that the Government will support is not only cruel, but is bad policy.
As 90 per cent of lone parents are female, it is a further example of how these
six years of wasted austerity have been borne on the backs of low income
mothers.

“Of equal concern is the lack of detail surrounding the so-called ‘rape
clause’. Should the burden of proof be placed upon survivors of rape by the
Department for Work and Pensions, this would constitute a wholly unacceptable
extension of the Department’s remit into deeply sensitive areas of women’s
lives.

“People would be right to feel little
confidence in the Government’s competence when approaching this highly
sensitive issue. More so when viewed in the context of the punitive DWP culture
fostered by this government.

“The sum of these deeply concerning
questions, which hang over the policy as a whole, suggests that the only
solution can be to scrap this policy once and for all. I urge the Prime
Minister to do so before it takes effect.”

Ends