Forget working, you could be better off on benefits under Labour! How a couple with three children earning just £10,000 a year could 'game' the system to pocket the equivalent of a £140,000 salary
Benefit-claiming parents who work as little as a day a week are set for bumper pay packets worth the equivalent of £140,000 next year - and it's all thanks to Labour's 'Benefit Street Budget'.
Benefit-claiming parents who work as little as a day a week are set for bumper pay packets worth the equivalent of £140,000 next year – and it's all thanks to Labour's 'Benefit Street Budget'.
Daily Mail analysis today lays bare the impact of the Government's decision to ditch the two-child benefit cap.
Calculations suggest a couple with three young children earning just £10,152 a year between them could now top up their earnings by nearly £76,000 - around £12,000 more than if the cap were in place.
That would effectively pocket them £86,000, given neither parent would pay a penny in tax or National Insurance.
Their total take-home amount would, according to the Daily Mail's number-crunching, be equivalent to the pre-tax income of £140,000 for one person or a couple pocketing £56,000 each.
A single parent in the same situation could boost their income to £83,000, matching the pre-tax income of someone earning £135,000.
For context, the UK median pre-tax full time salary is around £39,000. That rises to £49,000 in London.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately told the Daily Mail: 'Thanks to Rachel Reeves' Budget for Benefits Street, the system rewards those who do less and claim more.'
She added: 'Under Labour, people on modest pay can top up their income with tens of thousands in benefits – the equivalent of a six-figure salary.
'Our welfare system only works if it's fair to people who're paying in. You don't need a degree in ethics to see this is unfair.
'The welfare system is broken, and only the Conservatives, with our proposed £23billion in savings, have the backbone to fix it and get Britain working again.'
Reeves' decision to lift the cap will benefit 470,000 bigger families on benefits, costing the taxpayer £3.2billion a year.
The Conservatives have already pledged to restore the two-child cap if they win power.
This analysis comes after think-tank the Centre for Social Justice warned how generous benefit payments mean 'the incentives to work, or progress within work, have been further eroded'.
The CSJ - chaired by former Tory Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith - said in a report last month that the system that delivers a higher standard of living for those out of work than those who do.