Large families and welfare benefits

Unusually for the Mail, its piece about large families on benefits is politically correct.

Someone has made a convenient FoI request, which reveals that there are 190 families with at least ten under-18s where one or both of the parents gets an out-of-work benefit. These families are eligible for £61,183 a year in state support – much more than they could hope to earn if they entered the job market.

Nearly 100,000 people on benefits have four or more children, with more than 900 claimants having at least eight.

The way the Mail puts it is that the statistics show the extent to which enormous handouts "condemn such families to a life on benefits", because it would not be worth their while to take on work. Well ho hum, how many of them manoeuvred themselves into that position by having more children after they had gone onto benefits?

IDS wants to impose a benefits cap of £26,000 per family, we are told, but the LibDems want a higher figure.

There's surely scope for a rule that once a household has been on benefits for 12 months, no new children  will attract extra benefits. If you want to increase your family once you're on benefits, get work.

Some couples in work have to save up before they can afford a baby. Why should it be easier for couples on benefits?