Don't have children unless you can pay for them: Storm over Minister's message to jobless parents as Coalition clamps down on benefits



Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the state 'shouldn't support' large families

A Cabinet minister has provoked a storm by suggesting that the workshy should stop having children if they cannot afford them.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt called on the jobless to take responsibility for their families.

He said it was not the duty of the state to fund an increasing number of offspring with benefits.

His provocative comments came days after Chancellor George Osborne announced that no family should receive more than £500 a week in benefits.

Opponents, including new Labour leader Ed Miliband, branded the remarks ‘abhorrent’ and ‘cruel’, but Tory backbenchers offered generous support.

Neither No 10 nor the Treasury slapped Mr Hunt down over his comments, which re-focused the debate on tackling welfare dependency rather than the furore over stay-at-home middle class mothers losing child benefit.

Nearly 100,000 people on benefits have four or more children, with more than 900 claimants having at least eight.



The figures have been seized on by those who claim Labour’s benefits culture has created a ‘Shameless generation’, with large families having rents of up to £1,000-a-week paid by the state.



Last night Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘I am 100 per cent behind what Jeremy Hunt has said.



‘Many hard-working people save up before having children, so those who sit at home and do nothing shouldn’t expect taxpayers to pick up the tab for their alternative lifestyle.’



Andrew Rosindell, Tory MP for Romford, said: ‘I agree with him completely. There is unfortunately a culture that has developed over several decades – certain families think the state will always pay benefits to prop up their large families.

‘It is not for the government to bail these people out for ever more. If people have children, they must think about the consequences and whether they are able to cope.’

Mr Hunt made his comments on BBC2's Newsnight last night. He also insisted that the Government was right to withdraw child benefit from families where one parent is a higher-rate taxpayer

Dr David Green, director of think-tank Civitas, said: ‘It is important not to think of poor people as being complete victims of circumstance.



‘They’re just like everybody else who contemplates having a child and must ask themselves whether they are emotionally and financially ready for it.



‘If you’re on benefits you cannot afford to have more children – and that should be taken into account. If you haven’t got the money, you shouldn’t have children.’

Mr Hunt made his controversial comments on BBC2’s Newsnight on Wednesday.

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He denied the benefit cap was a ‘penalty’ on large families, but went on to say: ‘The number of children that you have is a choice and what we’re saying is that if people are living on benefits, then they make choices but they also have to have responsibility for those choices.



‘It’s not going to be the role of the state to finance those choices.



‘You can have children but if you are going to ask for support that is more than the average wage that people earn, then we’re saying no, the state shouldn’t support that.

‘That’s not fair on working people who have to pay the taxes to pay those benefits.’

Mr Hunt’s comments were pounced upon by new Labour leader Mr Miliband, who told ITV’s This Morning: ‘I think we need to support all families in this country and certainly not lecture them in the way that Jeremy Hunt sounds like he’s doing.’



Alison Garnham of the Child Poverty Action Group said: ‘Forcing children into destitution on the arbitrary basis of how many brothers and sisters they have is abhorrent. As families brace themselves to discover whether their jobs will survive the cuts it is awful that those with larger families should face this extra anxiety.’

Kate Green, Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Hunt’s comments were ‘unreasonable and very cruel.’ She said:‘It’s utterly wrong that children should suffer because of circumstances their parents experience. It’s absolutely wrong to go down the line of saying only rich people or better-off people should be parents.’



But Matthew Sinclair of the TaxPayers’ Alliance offered support, saying: ‘It is unfair for taxpayers to be asked to support people who have large numbers of children and no intention of providing for them.’



He added: ‘This is an extremely difficult area to take action in without making children pay for the irresponsibility of their parents.’



Earlier this week, Mr Osborne told a father of 11 that the £8,000 a year he received in child benefit was ‘a lot of money’ that hard-working taxpayers were having to pay.



But last night the Treasury categorically denied rumours that he was considering restricting child benefit payments to the third child.



Mr Osborne did not put a figure on the maximum limit on the welfare cap. But he said that, with the exception of the disabled, no family will receive more in benefits than the average family receives from going out to work, around £26,000 or £500 a week.



At present, some families get as much as £800 a week from the state. In future, their level of housing benefit will be limited so the total benefits package does not go over the weekly limit of around £500.



However, this equates to around £35,000 of earned income after tax, not £26,000.

THE FAMILY OF 12 WHO RAKE IN £95,000 A YEAR IN BENEFITS Give us more: Father Pete Smith with his wife Sam and their ten children Pete and Sam Smith rake in £95,000 a year in state benefits to look after their ten children. They live in a rent-free four-bedroom house and the council even pays for breakfasts to be delivered to their home. But the jobless couple still moan that is not enough to keep them and their brood, aged from five months to 14 years (pictured right), in the comfort they think they deserve. The house is ‘cramped’, they say, and they already complain that their children can only have one Nintendo Wii games console between them (plus they have to go to the trouble of heating up their free breakfast themselves). So cuts to their massive hand-outs just don’t bear thinking about. ‘It’s not really that much money we get,’ said Mrs Smith, 36. ‘It’s certainly not enough for all of us. By the time we pay for food, clothes and electricity, we don’t have much left. It’s tough.’ So tough, in fact, that a working family would have to be on a salary of £156,000 to take home the same after deductions. The couple have not worked since Mr Smith, 40, quit the Army in 2001 to care for his wife, who has curvature of the spine, and their then three children. Despite the condition for which Mrs Smith receives disability benefits, she has been able to give birth seven times more. The Smiths were moved to the council house in the Bristol suburb of Kingswood after a landlord accused them of wrecking their house in Bath. Bath and North East Somerset Council said it had a legal duty to rehouse the homeless children.

We'll have to wait five years for a baby

Baby plans on hold: Katie Green and her fiance James Slater would like to start a family but are putting it off due to financial pressures

In stark contrast to those who let the state pay for their ever-expanding families, hard-working Katie Green and her fiance James Slater are a model of restraint.

The couple, pictured, are due to marry next summer and are longing to start a family, but say their plans for a baby will have to be put on hold for at least five years.

They bought a £180,000 two-bedroom house together in March last year after saving a £30,000 deposit from their wages and a small inheritance.

As they earn just over £50,000 a year combined, they say they cannot afford to have a baby and make their mortgage repayments.

Miss Green, 22, who works as a marketing manager in Bristol, said: ‘We both want children but decided the current financial climate just isn’t right. We both have reasonably well paid jobs but we want to make sure everything is right before starting a family.

‘As things stand, we just don’t feel we have enough of a disposable income to justify having a child. It wouldn’t be fair on the child – or us, for that matter.’

Mr Slater, 22, a self-employed electrician, added: ‘The recession has hit my business pretty hard. I don’t want to bring a child up until we are comfortable enough to be certain we can all live comfortably.’

The couple criticised the country’s benefits culture that allowed parents to have children without being able to pay for their upkeep.

Miss Green said: ‘I feel as though hard-working professionals can be overlooked in favour of those on benefits. Those who can’t afford to have children shouldn’t.’

Charmer tipped as a future PM

Trusted by Cameron: Jeremy Hunt with wife Lucia

Jeremy Hunt’s effortless charm has seen him tipped as a future Prime Minister.

The Culture Secretary is so trusted by his Oxford contemporary David Cameron that he is often given the ‘Newsnight shift’ – appearing on the programme to defend the Government line against the onslaught of Jeremy Paxman.

But he is also obtaining a reputation for controversy.

Last June he was forced to apologise after suggesting that hooliganism was at least partly responsible for the Hillsborough tragedy.

And now he is under fire after making comments about benefits to families with large numbers of children.

The forthright remarks, warmly welcomed by the Right wing of the party, are at odds with his usual image of being the acceptable face of the Conservative Party.

Mr Hunt, 43, is the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse public school.

He worked in PR before making a small fortune in business. His Hotcourses educational guides have netted him more than £4million.

In 2005 he entered parliament for the constituency he grew up in – the quintessentially Tory seat of South West Surrey – and was one of the saints of the expenses scandal. His only blot was claiming 1p for a 12-second mobile phone conversation.

Five years later, Mr Hunt joined the Cabinet as secretary of state for culture, media and sports.

He has impressed colleagues with his eagerness to make cuts: he has slashed quangos and was the first to reduce the use of ministerial cars.