Universal Credit ‘Rape Clause’ will impact soon

Dear Editor

If people think the roll out of Universal Credit in Stirling cannot get any worse, they are in for a shock.

The two-child limit policy, now commonly referred to as the`Rape Clause’ is a Tory policy which limits Government subsidies to the first two children. It is being imposed on families in a few weeks’time.

It restricts families claiming Universal Credits for their first two children only, unless there are special circumstances, one of which was for a child born as a result of “nonconsensual conception”. This is the so-called`Rape Clause’and is one of the most repugnant policies ever introduced .

This draconian policy was introduced to China 40 years ago and came with inhumane sanctions.

Some of the methods the Chinese used to enforce the policy ranged from the wide distribution of diverse contraceptive methods, financial penalties and forced abortions and sterilisations for those who did not comply.

You need to ask is this one of the reasons why the Tories are seeking a hard Brexit which will de-couple us from the European Court of Human Rights, leaving us exposed to these nasty right wing Tories imposing inhumane practices on families.

I once again call on the Tory Government and their local cheerleader Stephen Kerr MP, to scrap Universal Credit altogether.

Councillor Alasdair MacPherson Bannockburn ward