Social policy today

• Reforms since 2015


  1. Married couples' tax allowance

  2. Child tax credits restricted to two children

  3. Shifts in parts of the benefit system towards making children the responsibility of their parents (rather than the state) until they are 25
• Married couples' tax allowance


  Similar to the married men's tax allowance of the Thatcher period, but the policy no longer states which partner must stay at home and is available to same-sex married couples too
• Child tax credits restricted to two children


  Families can only receive tax credits for their first two children, designed to disincentivise low-income families from having too many children
• Shifts in parts of the benefit system


  Making children the responsibility of their parents (rather than the state) until they are 25, an official extension of "childhood"