The SNP & the Rape Clause cover up

This is an emotive issue, so let me be clear right from the start. 

I oppose the family cap and the consequent "rape clause” that goes along with it. The family cap should be ended and with it the rape clause. In particular this policy need to be abolished in Scotland where we have significant issues over population growth; as a nation we should be welcoming big families.

Forgetting everything else about how abhorrent the policy is, if the SNP were true to their word about wanting to improve population growth in Scotland then they would see ending the family cap as a direct investment in the future of Scotland.

In this blog I’ll quickly establish that the SNP can end both the family cap and the rape clause in Scotland, I’ll then go on to show through a new FOI that the SNP have looked into the cost of ending the family cap and it’s entirely affordable, and yet they still refuse to abolish it. Supporters of the SNP who oppose the family cap and rape clause need to ask themselves why they are not taking action.

Ending the family cap
Let’s be clear about this right from the start, the SNP government in Holyrood could end the family cap tomorrow. At first the SNP attempted to pretend that they couldn't, but there is no doubt that they can, therefore they have since moved to a 'why should we' stance to defend their inaction.

Using Section 24 powers of the Scotland Act 2016 the SNP have the power to create a top up benefit to universal credit that can apply to all children after the first two. This benefit can be administered by the DWP on behalf of the Scottish Government and would mean that the UK would fund the first two children and the Scottish Government would fund every child after that. 

In practical terms benefits in the hands of the families would remain a single payment (as if the family cap never existed) and the costs would be organised at inter-governmental level.

With no family cap there is no rape clause.

Why should we?
As noted then the SNP’s excuse for not doing this boils down to 'why should we' or the false we'd pay twice for one welfare benefit (technically you pay twice for two welfare benefits). In any case that’s a remarkable excuse by anyone’s standard so let me give you a straight answer as to why the SNP should:

1. Unlike the Tories the SNP don’t support the family cap or the rape clause.
2. The cost of doing so is exceptionally small in the context of the Scottish Government budget.
3. It encourages population growth which the SNP's Growth Commission report notes as one of the most acute long term problems facing Scotland.
4. As a nationalist government it would help to establish Scotland leading the UK by showing there is a different way to the Tories and benefit cuts
5. Ending the family cap in Scotland will help put pressure on the Tories in the rest of the UK by giving the line, "if Scotland can afford to get rid of it why can’t we".


The FOI and the costs
The beauty of FOIs is that they do enable us to see that the Scottish Government has at least looked into the possibility to using their welfare powers to end the family cap. So we know that the SNP have at least considered ending the family cap but have (by their actions) evidently decided against doing anything.

I need to follow up with more focused FOIs (and that was my mistake) but the reply I got was revealing enough.

The cost of ending the family cap this year was £20M, less than one quarter the SNP Government 'record low' underspend in 2016/17.

Even after five years the cost is less than the cost of reducing Advance Passenger Duty.

Government is about choosing. What would you prefer your government spent money on? Subsidising my semi-weekly commute to London or investing in the long term growth of Scotland’s population and helping to end child poverty?

If you want to give me cash then fair enough, and thank you, but you can stop complaining about the family cap and rape clause because you now own that choice. 

That equally applies to SNP MPs, and would also benefit from the cuts to ADP, who are campaigning heavily in Westminster over these issues but refuse to utter a word about Holyrood inaction, or just try to defend it with 'why should we'.

Ending the rape clause alone
Now if you are still handwringing about the SNP being unable to afford to end the family cap then I’ll give you another alternative that costs even less: keep the family cap but end the rape clause. 

There is nothing to stop the SNP introducing a new benefit which only applies to women who have had more than two children one or more of which was the result of non consensual sex. That benefit can be paid as an exemption to the family cap and apply to all children in the family and have no obligation on proof on the part of the mother. 

The benefit can be paid on application across of wider range of exemptions (with no obligation on the applicant to say which one applies), so for example:

The Scottish Family Support Top-up credit can apply to all children in a family of more than two children born to parents where:
- One or more of the children is disabled
- One or more of the children is diagnosed with learning difficulties, i.e. dyslexia
- One or more of the children were conceived as a result of non consensual sex
- One or more of the parents were injured or killed as a result of serving in the armed forces
- One or more of the parents work more than 12 hours a week with a registered charity
- One or more of the parents is a carer for an elderly relative

You can add in more and more categories as you see fit, but the point is that ending the rape clause itself costs very little. In all of the cases above this would only cover a few people and the costs would be a rounding error within the Scottish Government budget, if you are worried about fraud then you can start to require levels of proof for each of these categories but my view would be simple... end the family cap.

Stop with the grievance and start governing
This whole episode shows the SNP at their absolute worst. Campaigning around the country against the family cap and the rape clause and yet doing nothing about it in Scotland. Anyone who is taken in by the 'why should we' excuse really needs to ask exactly how horrified they would feel if that was the UK Government's response.

I have no preference for which government ends the family cap and rape clause in Scotland, all I care about is that the policy is ended. It’s a bad policy and it’s particularly bad for Scotland. 

The Tories at least support the policy that they are implementing across the UK, the SNP say they are opposed and yet refuse to use their powers to end it.

To that end the SNP are guilty of the worst kind of hypocrisy on this issue and MP’s like Alison Thewliss and Mhairi Black should be hanging their heads in shame at the inaction of the Government represented by their party. 

To govern is to choose, someone should tell the SNP they are in power.