Minister for children didn’t know value of child benefit

Last week the LBC host Nick Ferrari asked the UK’s minister for children how much the standard child benefit payment was. David Johnston didn’t know. As he made excuses, Ferrari asked: “Is your title ‘minister for children’?” to which Johnston replied that he was. “And what sort of job do you think you’re doing here – minister?” More muttering. The excruciating exchange followed the government’s failure to transfer millions of pounds in child benefit into parents’ bank accounts last week. The mistake meant payments were delayed for 48 hours, pushing families on tight budgets into overdraft, or even making them liable for fines or penalty payments on direct debits that didn’t go through as a result of the money not landing as expected.