Liberal Democrats: a ‘savage cut’ to child benefit?
Posted by Karen | Posted in News, Politics | Posted on 28-04-2010
We already know the Liberal Democrats would cut Child Tax Credits and the Child Trust Fund, but it looks like child benefit could be the next on their hit list.  Vince Cable has floated this idea before, as has Nick Clegg.  Bizarrely, the last time the Liberal Democrat Chancellor suggested child benefit should be means-tested, he dismissed it as a ‘slip of the tongue’.  Well – look at the article below that includes an excerpt from the transcript of a Newsnight interview.  There’s no slip of the tongue there: Cable is quite clear that child benefit could be next up for a savage cut.
The point about child benefit is that it is universal – everybody gets it.  It says something about how we as a society value children and it means that the benefit helps every child.    Opening child benefit up to means-testing could be the thin end of the wedge. At what point would the test be applied?  Once the idea of it being universal has gone, what’s to stop it being pruned further and further?
This is worrying stuff Рeven the Tories wouldn’t go this far!  There’s no disagreement that the budget deficit needs to be reduced – Labour is committed to doing so by half in the next four years.  There will be cuts in the years to come.  But that really can’t mean everything is up for grabs – you have to protect the services that matter.    Yet Vince Cable is ‘ruling nothing out’ – including child benefit and the ‘sacred cow’ (his words!) of NHS funding.   What next?
Labour is committed to protect universal child benefit, as well as funding for schools, hospitals and frontline police.  Another good reason to vote Labour on Thursday 6th May.
Take a look at the article by the Fabian Society:  http://bit.ly/dnqDZl
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