Alexandra Kemp
There are principles worth fighting for and Universal Child Benefit is one of them. It is top of the list for the Women’s Income Network (WIN) the brand-new coalition of campaigning voices and women’s charities including Fawcett, the Child Poverty Action Group and leading academics.
Universal Child Benefit unites a consensus across the political divide as society’s only universal recognition of the costs of bringing up children. It acknowledges the typically- lifelong financial impact of motherhood with its downward pull on women’s pay and prospects. It is the progressive response to the truth universally acknowledged that household income is not equally shared but that money paid direct to mothers is likely to be spent on children, a premise accepted by all governments since the Second World War.
Not any more.
