Fifers have been urged to fight an “appalling” requirement for women who have mothered a child as a result of rape to tell the tax man or lose benefits.
From next year awards of child tax credits worth up to £2,780 per youngster will only be made for the first two children in a household.
In what has been dubbed the rape clause, the UK Government has decided a third child can only be claimed for where they are the result of rape or other “exceptional circumstances”.
A campaign has been launched by the SNP to scrap the clause, which would force affected women to tell a government official they had been raped or lose their entitlement, and Fife MPs want people to sign a petition.
Limiting payments to two children has also been condemned as “nothing short of social engineering akin to a Chinese-style two-child policy”.
Supporting #scraptherapeclause for tax credit claimants. Please sign the petition here: https://t.co/NIOUqHvMCW pic.twitter.com/qGrbeGsb9O
— Roger Mullin MP (@RogMull) January 25, 2016
Roger Mullen, MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, said: “The SNP believes that the policy on limiting tax credits to the first two children is appalling and tantamount to social engineering, but to put a woman who has been raped in a position where she needs to declare that to a government official is just abhorrent.
“What is moral about dragging women in to talk about the fact that they may have been raped, so they can get some decent treatment from the benefit system?”
Glenrothes and Central Fife MP Peter Grant said: “This also stigmatises the child involved, which is surely against the UN convention on the rights of the child.
“This proposal has no place in the 21st Century and must be dropped immediately.”
Back @alisonthewliss and sign up to https://t.co/tWpFxlqAlW#scraptherapeclause pic.twitter.com/eslKd7Ru7v
— Douglas Chapman MP (@DougChapmanSNP) January 20, 2016
Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman said: “I would urge as many people as possible to visit www.scraptherapeclause.co.uk and add their voice to the many others calling upon the Government to drop this appalling proposal.”
When the measure was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his summer budget last year it was explained that the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs would develop “protections” for women who have a third child as the result of rape.
More than 7,500 people have signed the petition started by campaigner Simon Francis to remove the clause on the Government website.