Two Cap Child Benefit

[Omegstrat6]

Morning Omeg
As 123 said most of those entitled will be on universal credit anyway and any extra money won?t go on the kids in most cases - it will go on alcohol and fags.

In lots of cases sadly it?s more financially beneficial to sit on a fat backside than going to work. In Spain you receive almost-nothing unless you have contributed to their system. Surely that?s how the system should work?

The country is out of control on the billions wasted on illegal immigration and benefits and working people are getting fed up!

Hi Al, hope you are well. I certainly don't disagree that this country is out of control and I've been there working 60 hours a week and still struggling to pay the mortgage and bills and feed and clothe the kids while across the street from me are those who have no intention of working but are good at playing the system, can afford to smoke and drink, run a car and even take the odd holiday abroad. I understand that anger. My point is that whilst there certainly remain too many scroungers, the real issue in this country is the growing inequality in wealth. The very and super rich are, of course, quite happy for the hard working middle income earners who are being hit by budgets like this one to direct their frustrations and anger downwards rather than look upwards towards themselves.

Money begets money, it always has done but for those in the top 10% who defend their wealth by decrying that criticism of them is simply envy and jealousy, I would argue that it is more to do with their greed and a growing lack of opportunities for those at the bottom to rise up. It is a situation that does not create a healthy society because those at the top of the pile do not spend their money in sectors of the economy that generate growth which might benefit the majority.

What happens in the US often mirrors to a degree what happens in the UK. For too long the liberal elite in America ignored the frustrations of many of the population and financial crashes and other factors made many feel that the "American Dream" was no longer a possibility for them to achieve. The result was growing frustration and anger and a rise in populism that some with power and money tried to harness hence Trump was able to get elected. As has historically always been the case, an easy scapegoat had to be found which was immigration amongst other things. But the current POTUS is at last now being found out for the grifter he actually is as most Americans find themself no better off despite successes in curbing illegal immigration while the Toddler in Chief re-models the White House in gold and courts unsavoury Middle Eastern princes. Here in the UK, we don't have a narcissistic grifter in charge but we do have a weak and cloth eared PM which may be nowhere as bad but still hopelessly inept.

IMHO, a better balance in wealth distribution needs to be found somehow if conditions in this country are going to improve. We need to generate growth and we need businesses for this but we equally need to ensure that the most vulnerable in society are protected and that employees are rewarded with decent pay and better protections and T&Cs. The two should not be mutually exclusive in a properly functioning economy. The failing of neo-liberalism and small government has been that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of deregulation, profit and privatisation.