George Osborne's withdrawal of child benefit from "higher income" families is front-page news today - with good reason. It will affect 1.2 million families. Its simplistic (rather than means-tested) design creates situations in which two-earner families making £86K a year will keep their benefits while a single earner making more than £44K will lose it. (It's based on an individual's income, not household income.) It also saves £1bn for the government coffers at a time when every penny counts.
Already the policy has prompted an immediate outcry that makes you wonder whether these changes will be implemented at all. The Conservative children's minister Tim Loughton has said the plan might need revising. A thinktank said the cuts could "seriously distort" work incentives. Osborne aides have stressed that no final decisions about the cuts had been taken. Even David Cameron has said he will "listen" to those urging a review of the cuts (although the Guardian coverage speculated that he was saying this only to be polite and has no intention of revising it).
Let's face it, in this economy there will have to be hard decisions and painful choices. Is this one of the ones we just need suck up? Or is it asking too much of a segment of society that's already seen their support vanish?
Polly Toynbee in today's Guardian writes:
"But how odd that families with children have taken every hit so far. Maternity allowances, child tax credits, the baby bond, the three-year freeze in child benefit - all thse cuts target children, points out Yvette Cooper, the shadow secretary for work and pensions. Now comes the end of the near-sacred universal child benefit: the old compact binding rich and poor alike into the welfare state."
The Times leader on the subject calls the move "brave" and declares it the "right decision". (Subscription required.)
What do you think? Post a comment or add a link to your blog post on the topic.
Picture: George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference (I would have gotten this image from Conservative Party headquarters but they couldn't supply one until Thursday. Hmmm.)
