What do I think about higher rate taxpayers losing child benefits? I think it's a start. Having or not having children is a personal choice. The government has no legitimate role in the matter, whether brandishing sticks or carrots. Successive governments have encouraged us to breed, however, merely in an attempt to delay the collapse of their giant Ponzi scheme – the welfare state.
Mrs P. and I didn't claim the child benefits to which we were entitled. We didn't need them and preferred to have as little contact with the rude and malodorous British state as possible. It has caused some unexpected problems for the Misses P., as Britain's bureaucracy has no record of their existence. No National Insurance number was issued to either of them at 16, as the database is apparently linked to child benefits. They recently had to present themselves to the Home Office to be interviewed as to their status. It says something about our country that failing to take the state's shilling is regarded as suspicious.
These benefits used to be tax allowances. If the state must incentivise people to have children that was surely a better way to do it? Allowances are valuable only to taxpayers with the wherewithal to raise their children. Under such a system, in fact, the more able they are to afford them, the greater the incentive. Benefits have rather the opposite effect. There's no need to earn money in order to receive them. People may indeed be incentivised to have children they cannot afford.
For my own part, I think the state should stay out of reproductive issues. Only people who want children and are capable of caring for them should have them. There should be a single tax allowance per earner, fixed at a level higher than the minimum wage/maximum benefits, and a single rate of tax. The more you earn, the more you would pay, but without any higher rates to punish extra effort. If you choose to live child free and spend the money saved on other things, good luck to you. If you want children and are lucky enough to be able to have them, good luck to you too (and to them).
When Miss P. the Elder was born, my then boss told me I would never make a more expensive investment, nor a better one. He was right. My children have cost more than any other category of expense, but I have never regretted a penny. I wanted children and no government could have taxed me out of it. Had I not wanted them, no government could have incentivised me into it. The current wailing and gnashing of teeth about changes to benefits is – in my view – rather pathetic. Grow up, Britain, and shoulder your responsibilities. There is great pleasure to be derived from it.
The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
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