Much of it has, unfortunately, come to pass: abolition of the Child Trust Fund, cuts to child tax credits for middle-class families, and an end to a number of maternity-related grants. Child benefit will now be taken away from higher rate taxpayers, ending the universal nature of a benefit paid to families for decades in recognition of both the costs and rewards of raising children.
Why have families with children been so directly in the firing line? In part, the answer lies in the power of the grey vote. Older people are much more likely to vote than young people, and during the campaign they secured promises from the Conservatives to protect their benefits and improve their pensions. This has made it difficult for the Coalition to bring welfare spending on the over-60s into the frame of the cuts, heaping pressure on other areas of annually managed expenditure.
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