Budget 2015 (July)
MP challenges child tax credit plan that could require women to prove rape
Government rebuked over 'distasteful' third child tax credits proposal in July budget
Libby Brooks and Rowena Mason
Thu 9 Jul 2015 08.42 EDT Last modified on Thu 7 Mar 2019 14.47 EST
Alison Thewliss SNP MP, who first drew attention to the clause on Wednesday. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
The government has been challenged to justify an "incredibly distasteful" proposal in Wednesday's budget which would require a woman who had a third child as the result of rape to justify her position in order to avoid losing tax credits.
The plans to restrict child tax credits to two children for new claimants from 2017 incorporate a number of exemptions, including multiple births, and set out that "the Department for Work and Pensions and HMRC will develop protections for women who have a third child as a result of rape or other exceptional circumstances".
Alison Thewliss, SNP MP for Glasgow Central, who first drew attention to the clause on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, described what would inevitably result in a woman having to prove to a DWP official that she had been raped as appalling.
"We think the policy on limiting tax credits is appalling anyway, and tantamount to social engineering, but putting a woman who has been raped – and her child – in that position is shocking."
Thewliss said that the policy had clearly not been thought through. She said: "How are you going to prove it? What if there is no conviction [for the rape] as happens in a lot of cases? There are so many unanswered questions.
"What happens if it becomes known in the local community that a woman is receiving tax credits for a third child? What assumptions will be made about that woman and her children? It's a complete abuse of her privacy."
In Thursday's business questions in the Commons, Kirsten Oswald, SNP MP for East Renfrewshire, called on the government to allow time for a debate on the "incredibly distasteful" proposal.
This was dismissed by Chris Grayling, the leader of the house, who said George Osborne had already made clear it would be "designed in a way to handle difficult cases in the most sensitive possible way".
Lisa Longstaff of the campaigners Women Against Rape described the proposal as "disgusting". She said: "Asking women to disclose very difficult information and expecting them to be able to prove it – in what is frankly a very hostile environment when the DWP is trying to take your money away – will have appalling consequences."
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