Labour must 'immediately' scrap two-child benefit cap if it wants to end child poverty, charities say

Charities have urged the Labour government to scrap the two-child benefit cap “immediately” in order to meet its child poverty strategy targets. 

The End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) has warned that the government’s child poverty strategy must set legally binding goals on child poverty in order to “hold all levels of government” accountable. 

The ECPC – a coalition of around 120 children’s charities, organisations and unions – has created eight tests for Labour’s child poverty strategy, set to be published in spring 2025, claiming the strategy must be tested by the number of children it lifts out of poverty, and whether it “truly puts us on a path to eradicate child poverty for good”.

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It claimed that the plan should include “immediately” scrapping the two-child benefit cap, which would lift an estimated 300,000 children out of poverty. The coalition added that the two-child limit on. benefits currently affects 1.6 million children in the UK, pulling “109 children into poverty every day”.

If it remains in place, the ECPC warned, the child poverty strategy “could fail and little else could be done to mitigate the impacts of this policy”.

The government published its Tackling Child Poverty policy paper on 23 October. While there was no mention of the two-child benefit cap in the paper, it promised to address “systemic drivers” of poverty, such as housing and employment.

The report states that poverty “scars the lives and life chances of our children” and said it is “shameful” that more than four million children are living in poverty in the UK, and 800,000 are using food banks to eat.

The strategy sets out four key priorities in order to tackle child poverty, touching on areas including increasing incomes through supporting parents into work, as well as increasing “financial resilience”.

The ECPC added that alongside scrapping the two-child benefit cap, there should be a “fundamental reform” to the social security system, as well as “legally binding” targets on child poverty, and “tailored support” for children and families most likely to experience poverty.

It added that the government’s plan should set a “clear goal” of halving child poverty in the decade, and “completely eradicate it” in the next 20 years.

Statistics from January this year found that 4.2 million children across the UK are living in poverty, with figures from August finding that 151,630 children are homeless and living in temporary accommodation in England.

“Child poverty is a blight on our society and is also completely avoidable,” Joseph Howes, chair of the ECPC, said. 

“If the government is serious about tackling and ultimately eradicating child poverty in this country, it needs to be bold and ambitious in its investments – including immediately scrapping the two-child limit to benefit payments.”

He continued: “Our coalition’s eight tests offer a clear pathway to ensuring no child grows up in poverty, and we will continue working so that next year’s child poverty strategy includes the right actions.”

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