Has David Cameron gone step too far with this child benefit changes?
David Cameron is this evening under intense pressure to revisit yesterday's announcement from George Osbourne regarding the reduction of child benefits for some people in the UK. Despite the fact that the Conservative party has put itself forward as the party for families in the UK it seems that where one parent earns in excess of £44,000 a year they will be relieved of child benefit. However, bizarrely, if two parents each earn just under £44,000 a year then they would still be entitled to child benefit as normal.
It will be interesting to see how David Cameron reacts to the criticism in the press and whether he has the bottle to stand his ground or indeed he caves in and agrees to revisit the proposed changes. This is a very testing time for David Cameron and his coalition partners and could dictate the future direction and future strategy of the coalition government. Will he break, as Gordon Brown did in the past, or hold steady?
The changes announced yesterday are just the tip of the iceberg as the UK authorities look towards a total overall of the UK welfare state.
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