There are a number of misconceptions (no pun intended!) among these answers:
A declining birth rate is not a problem. What is a problem is over population and Britain, especially the South East, suffers from it enormously. It makes no difference where they come from, whether home-grown or imported, there are simply too many people in the country.
As a result people should be encouraged to limit their breeding. No Child Benefit of any description should be paid to anybody and the taxation regime should penalise those who have excessively large families (i.e. more than one child). Benefits should not be adjusted as the size of a family increases. Unemployed people should, like people in employment, learn to live within their current means.
It is now being (finally) recognised by politicians that the ideal situation in which to bring up a child is within a stable two-parent relationship, one of each gender. This, of course, is a fact which most sensible people have always known. To encourage people to deliberately bear orphans by providing them with means of support is irresponsible in the extreme.
Yes it is punishing the children for the sins of their parents, and in many cases the children would be better off in care. But it is the parents who are providing the punishment by introducing children into the world whom they cannot support..
There - that�s set the cat among the pigeons! I won�t add any more to this thread as I know I have set myself up to have my head bitten off!