Labour 'considering' scrapping two-child benefit cap

The new government will “consider” scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the education secretary has said.

Bridget Phillipson was pushed over whether Labour planned to scrap the policy on Sky News today (22 July) and said the government is “aware of the evidence” around its links to child poverty – but added that it is a “very expensive” measure.

Keir Starmer’s government has promised an “ambitious” plan for ending child poverty, but it has so far refused to commit to removing the two-child limit on benefits in spite of increasing pressure from MPs and charities.

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The policy, often referred to as either the two-child benefit cap or the two-child limit on benefits, means that families who have a third child or subsequent children born after April 2017 are denied up to £3,500 a year compared with those whose children were born sooner.

Phillipson is set to lead a new ministerial taskforce alongside work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall to look at ways the government can reduce poverty levels among children. Asked about whether Labour would scrap the two-child limit multiple times by Burley, Phillipson said: “This is not a policy that the Labour government introduced.

“We are aware of the evidence around this and as part of the review that we will conduct in the months to come, we will consider that as one of a number of ways… We will look at all levers in terms of how we can lift children out of poverty. It’s housing, it’s work, it’s poor terms and conditions, it’s low pay.”

But she added: “Unfortunately it’s also a very expensive measure, but we will need to consider it as one of a number of levers in terms of how we make sure we lift children out of poverty.”

Speaking to journalists during a press conference at Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, prime minister Keir Starmer was grilled on the education secretary’s comments – but he fell short of committing to a removal of the cap.

“In relation to poverty, what the education secretary said this morning, I agree with what she said,” he said. “She’s passionate about tackling poverty. And child poverty in particular.

“We will make sure that the strategy covers all bases to drive down child poverty. No child should grow up in poverty.”

Charities have consistently pushed the government to scrap the policy. It is estimated that 300,000 children could be lifted out of poverty and 700,000 would be in less deep poverty if it were dropped.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:  “The government must move to reform the wholly inadequate and deliberately punitive social security system and that should start with scrapping the cruel two-child benefit cap.

“Rights-respecting benefit levels should be set on the basis of the real cost of essentials like food and housing, rather than arbitrarily-applied limits to income which trap children in poverty. The anti-poverty ambitions of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill will be no more than rhetoric without addressing these underlying causes of child poverty.”

Dan Paskins, executive director of policy, advocacy and campaigns at Save the Children UK, said: “No child poverty strategy will be credible unless the two-child limit is scrapped at the Autumn Budget.

“With 1.6 million children impacted by this cruel and unfair policy, the two-child limit punishes children just for having siblings. Scrapping it could immediately lift half a million children out of poverty and would be the first major step to deliver on the aims of the child poverty taskforce.”

Joanna Rea, director of advocacy for the UK Committee for Unicef UK, added: “The first step to lifting babies and young children out of poverty is to immediately abolish the two-child limit on universal credit and end the benefit cap. It is during a child’s early years that we have the best chance to set them up to succeed in life, and this is why this child poverty strategy needs to be a national priority.”

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