Danny Alexander has claimed that the Tories would meet their target of cutting £12 billion to the welfare budget by making massive cuts to Child Benefit, means testing, limiting it to two children, abolishing the increased payment for the first child and removing it for 16-19 year olds. He told the Guardian that they had suggested these things back in 2012 and the Liberal Democrats had put a stop to them:

The Conservatives have been under sustained pressure to detail how they will cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017-2018, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank confirmed this week the Tories have so far disclosed only 10% of these cut in the form of a two-year freeze in working age benefits. A separate internal government paper, Alexander reveals, was drawn up by the Treasury commissioned by the Tories for an additional £6bn cuts in welfare to be announced in the 2012 Autumn Statement. The £8bn worth of welfare cuts were drawn up by Duncan Smith at a time when the cabinet was considering whether to stick to its timetable to reduce Britain’s national debt as a proportion of GDP. The plan was dropped.

The Tories have come out with a mockraged “But how could he suggest such a thing?” denial. This is barely credible. We know that Iain Duncan Smith was talking openly about limiting Child Benefit to two children back in 2013 as was Grant Shapps who added an even nastier element to this policy – that it should only apply to unemployed parents. According to the Telegraph, then:

But instead of denying the payments to all large families, some Tories have suggested that restrictions should be applied only to parents who do not work. Grant Shapps, the Conservative chairman, earlier this year suggested that unemployed parents should not receive child benefit for additional children. Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, last year questioned whether it was acceptable that families on benefits should continue to receive endless amounts of money for every child they have, when parents who are working often cannot afford to have more children. The Lib Dems have insisted that there should be no more welfare cuts imposed during this Parliament.

As recently as last month, Newsnight reported that the Tories were wanting to restrict payment to three children, with Dominic Raab muttering darkly about “personal responsibility.”

Limiting Child Benefit in the way the Tories suggest would, of course, hit the working age poorest the most.

I am assuming that it’s no accident that Danny is telling us this on the day of the Leaders’ Question Time tonight. The Tories have not been pushed on this enough during the campaign. If their plans for those massive £12 billion cuts to an already pared to the bone welfare budget were not controversial, they would have no problem with publishing them. Their vagueness around both those cuts and their unfunded pledges on tax cuts for the rich and the NHS is surprising for a party which likes to boast about its economic responsibility. People have a right to know what they are getting before they cast their vote.

These ideas have been around in the Tory party for quite some time. If the Liberal Democrats were not in Government, these would not just exist in some Tory policy paper, or some Treasury document. They would be on the statute book.

Child Benefit must be based on need, not on insulting and inaccurate value judgements by well-heeled Conservatives. Stigmatising certain children by denying them benefit purely because of their position in the family is a horrible idea. They really mustn’t be allowed to get away with it.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings