http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14009261


Will they actually do it? Or leave it to future generations to pay for?

Spend more on deprived children!? Presumably they mean the ones who's parents already get countless benefits? What about those just above the threshold that struggle to do anything because their parents earn "just enough" to not get help?

Yes but unless they have disabled children the money is not as much as you think. They will still be in the bottom 3 deciles of income. I suspect that the majority of people have far better lifestyles than any one on benefits. The government will cut your benefits if one of couple is working so they are still worse off than you think. Then add in the social stigma and stress from managing on the low income. For many working on minimum wage makes no sense at all. The loss of benefits means that until recently they had an effective tax rate approaching 90%. More than double the tax rate on multimillionaires until the crisis. It is like the misconception that public sector workers get fabulous pensions. When the reality is that most people whatever sector they worked in will get a pathetic pension.

How about preventing the problem rather than curing it.

Best solution is raise wages but they have been stagnant since 2003. Also if you stop people having children you can forget about retiring. They will be the ones paying your state pension. Their pension will be paid by the generation after.

Ah yes the pension pyramid scheme. Guranteed to work just like every other pryamid scheme beforehand.

+1 about pensions and pension funds (public or private) ...

It may have all changed, but in my experience single parent families/families who's parents can't/won't work got new school uniforms every term (I mean new, not new second hand), had all the latest crazes (pogs, Pokemon cards, etc.), free school meals, EMA, discounts on non-educational trips, and term-time holidays (even after school clamped down on them).

I've always been told you've got to work your own way to the top, why should some be handed so much?

Yes but the work your way to the top fantasy has not really been true for the last few decades. I know people who have worked and are still scraping by. To some extent the inequities were reinforced by family credit to boost incomes of those who earned less than £60 000 who had kids. Even MP's qualified for them! I would have preferred to see those working having their wages increased so that they do not have to rely on family credits to make ends meet. Also that does all depend on whether their are jobs available and at what rate of pay. Don't forget that governments have been massaging the unemployment figures for years by getting as many people into part time work so that the headline figure of unemployed is lower. Yet I suspect that many of these people would like a full time job, and are only making the jobs survivable because of tax payer subsidies like family credit. Also many kids will get everything so that they do not stand out, yet their parents might be going without so that they can progress well.