child poverty strategy<\/a>, which government sources say is due \u201cimminently\u201d, ministers were urged to consider how many families would miss out on the full impact of lifting the two-child limit because their benefits are already capped.<\/p>\nThe overall benefit cap limits the total amount of welfare out-of-work households can claim to \u00a323,320 for those living in London, and \u00a322,020 for those outside the capital.<\/p>\n
It does not apply to some claimants, such as disabled people or carers.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the left-leaning thinktank the Resolution Foundation estimated that if the two-child limit were lifted without raising the household cap, around 9 per cent (39,000) of families would not receive the full benefit.<\/p>\n
This would be in addition to the 8 per cent, already subject to the benefit cap, who would see no gain at all.<\/p>\n
Labour chairs of the cross-party committees for Education and Work and Pensions, Helen Hayes and Debbie Abrahams, said the two-child cap was responsible for \u201cdamaging the opportunities of a generation of children, who were dragged into poverty through no fault of their own\u201d.<\/p>\n
They warned that many families who will receive more money due to it being scrapped would come up against the household benefit cap that limits the amount of welfare that can be claimed.<\/p>\n
The senior MPs stopped short of explicitly calling for the government to lift the limit, but made it clear the Chancellor, and other senior colleagues, must consider the wider impact of lifting the two-child limit.<\/p>\n
Government sources have made it clear that its child poverty pledge will be judged against how many fewer children are living in deprivation at the end of this parliament.<\/p>\n
\u2018A positive start\u2019<\/p>\n
Calling the removal of the two-child limit a \u201cpositive start\u201d, Abrahams and Hayes hinted that further measures may be needed to avoid families immediately hitting another benefit restriction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditional cash support to families with more than two children will make a direct and positive impact on their children\u2019s wellbeing. However, many families will very quickly come up against the benefit cap\u2026\u201d they said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cCash support through the social security system is essential to alleviate poverty but the comprehensive child poverty strategy needs to go much further and wider, involving all Government departments\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Their comments lay the ground for another potentially difficult political decision for the Government, which has repeatedly promised to lower the overall welfare bill.<\/p>\n
\u2018A second harmful block\u2019<\/p>\n
Green Party MP Sian Berry said the overall benefit cap meant thousands of children in larger families \u201cwill see no impact at all on their wellbeing from this policy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe struggle against poverty will not be over for every child until this second harmful block on the rights of families to basic wellbeing is removed,\u201d she said.
\u201cIn my constituency, hundreds of children are subject to the overall benefit cap, with 993 households affected across Brighton and Hove.\u201d<\/p>\n
The feminist economic thinktank, the Women\u2019s Budget Group, said the decision to remove the limit was a \u201clandmark step towards tackling child poverty,\u201d which would help lift around half a million children out of deprivation.<\/p>\n
According to the WBG\u2019s Interim Director, Dr Sara Reis, the move would particularly support single parents, who, she said, make up more than half of the households affected by the policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some families this relief will be short-lived when they find their income is still subject to the benefit cap,\u201d she said, explaining that the cap applies to households earning less than the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the minimum wage.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor single parents, most of whom are women, balancing parenting and paid work is harder than for dual-parent households, so it is no surprise that they make up nearly 70 per cent of families whose benefits are capped.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver half of capped single-parent households have a youngest child under five years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing MPs, Reeves said moves to reform gambling taxes, fraud in the welfare system, and tax avoidance would all go towards funding the policy change.<\/p>\n
Later, when asked if she believed the decision would be enough to appease frustrated Labour backbenchers, the Chancellor said scrapping the policy was \u201cabout addressing child poverty<\/a> and also reducing some of those costs on other parts of the system, including in our NHS and in our schools\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers face immediate political pressure to reconsider the household benefit cap which limits the amount of welfare a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,101821,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55,476],"class_list":["post-287414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-child-poverty","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}