SOMETIMES you have to state the obvious for it to be recognised.
Yes eating too much chocolate can give you spots and yes too much vodka can cause one hell of a hangover.
Right up there with these pearls of wisdom is the blindingly simple fact that having two or more children at the same time costs more than just having the one.
As well as all the increased medical risks and sleepless nights that a multiple birth family brings, money worries can be overwhelming.
Before you even start to stress over whether, as a mum of multiples, you will ever return to paid work because you can’t afford the childcare, the costs in your babies’ first year can be astronomical.
When you have baby twins, or triplets, you become a mini celeb in your neighbourhood. Even the most routine of trips out – down to the shops for a new pack of nappies – can become a lengthy trek as passer-by after passer-by stops you to congratulate you on your brood, coo over how cute they are – and comment on what a financial headache ‘multiple’ parenthood must be.
“Double the trouble eh?” They joke. “You’ve got your hands full, rather you than me, must be costing you a fortune.”
And in the supermarket they say: “Did you buy one and get one free?”
Like Chris Tarrant when someone shouts at him in the street: “Can I phone a friend?” Us multiple birth parents smile sweetly and pretend it is the first time we have ever heard such an accomplished witticism.
The man and woman in the street instantly recognise that having your children seconds or minutes apart is going to cost you more than if they arrive in different years.
But the Government doesn’t.
Child benefit has always paid more for the “older” child than their sibling or siblings - even if they were born at virtually the same time.
This is annoying because the nappies, food, cot and car seat for the second or third baby doesn’t cost any less –and neither does the specialist equipment such as double or triple buggies needed – not to mention the bigger cars many families have to buy.
There are no hand-me downs, no Moses baskets or high chairs stored in the attic or bin bags full of unisex baby-gros to use the second time around. You have to buy at least twice as much stuff – at exactly the same time.
That is why I am backing a campaign launched to close a “loophole” in the tax credit system which means parents of twins, triplets or more are losing out on hundreds of pounds.
I work with a charity called Tamba (The Twins and Multiple Births Association) and we have teamed up with the website www.twinsclub.co.uk to highlight a “fundamental inequality” in the system.
Parents are being urged to sign a petition hosted on the site, as well as taking part in a letter-writing blitz to their local MP.
The Child Tax Credit is made up of three elements; the family element of £545, an amount payable per child dependent on household income, and an additional £545 baby element payable for the first year. This baby element is only payable for one baby at a time.
This is wholly unfair. Families with twins, as opposed to two children born say 18 months apart, are missing out on £545 and families with triplets or more are being short-changed by more than £1,000
Having twins or more brings additional emotional, practical and above all financial pressures and this is the latest blow from a Government that does not recognise the extra costs having a multiple birth family brings.
While Tamba welcomes the fact that the Government has recognised the additional costs that a baby brings, the needs of multiple birth families have clearly been overlooked because much of the extra costs of babies has to be simply duplicated (or triplicated) with multiples.
There are approximately 10,000 multiple births in the UK every year and Tamba has calculated that the cost to Government of closing this loophole and making the baby element payable per baby, would be in the region of £5 million a year. This would also be of benefit to those few families who have two children born separately but within 12 months.
Tamba has 6,000 members across the UK and represents the needs of many more multiple birth families. Many of these families have already been in contact with me regarding what they see as a wholly unacceptable situation.
Sally Howard, a civil servant, of Cannock, Staffordshire, and mum to Daisy and Sam, both aged five months, says: “It’s grossly unfair that multiple birth families miss out on £500 - having two or more babies means double everything and double the cost.
“It is not the same as having two children 18 months apart - you can spread the cost that way and reuse things you brought the first time around.
“Having two babies means getting through on average 20 nappies a day, and three cans of formula a week.
These are just the basic things needed -the list goes on and on.”
Liberal Democrat MPs backed Tamba’s fight.
Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik took up the campaign for payments for both babies on behalf of his constituent Gary Northeast, the father of one-year-old twin girls.
Mr Opik says that it is a form of punishment for couples who "by an oversight of birth" happen to have twins or triplets.
"The only other country that I can think of who have punished people for having more than one child was China in the 1950s and 1960s," said the MP. "I sincerely hope that...the government is not providing a disincentive to twins."
"It really is an outrage that something which is the hand of biology or fate can lead to over £500 a year difference to parents in that situation.
All families with an income up to £66,000 a year are eligible to claim the baby tax credit if they have a child under a year old.
Mr Opik and other Liberal Democrats, including Sue Doughty, the former MP for Guildford where Tamba is based, signed an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to recognise the discrepancy.
• For more details contact Tamba on 0870 770 3305 or see
www.tamba.org.uk/www.twinsclub.co.uk.
* Twinline is a national, confidential, support, listening and information service for all parents of twins, triplets and more, and the professionals involved in their care. Tel. 0800 138 0509 The service operates from 7pm to 10pm every weeknight, and 10am to 10pm on Saturdays and Sundays, all year round.
* A version of this article previously appeared in the Birmingham Post.
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