The End Child Poverty Coalition is making an urgent plea to the Labour Government - urging it to do away with the controversial two-child limit to benefit payments. The two-child cap will prevent parents from claiming Universal Credit or child tax credit for more than two children, with a handful of exemptions.
New data from the ONS has revealed the staggering extent of households this policy change will impact and the 1.6 million children living in these homes. The statistics also revealed 52% of the households that will be impacted by this cap are single parents - with women more likely to be single parents.
Over half of the households are headed by working people and 62% had three children, one more than the policy allows for. The policy’s biggest impact will be felt in London with nearly 70,000 households set to be affected and a final damning revelation saw 3,100 women having to declare they had been the victim of rape in order to be exempt from this policy.
Research by the coalition highlighted that areas of high child poverty levels also had a high percentage of families impacted by the limit. Joseph Howes, Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, slammed the “shameful policy” and urged for it to be scrapped imminently as “children living in poverty cannot wait any longer”.
He said: “The two-child limit just has to go. If the aim is to reduce child poverty, there is no way for the new Labour government to keep this policy in place when the evidence shows that the number of children impacted is increasing year on year.”
The CEO of Buttle UK also pointed out: “Families impacted are missing out on up to £3,455 per child every year, meaning local economies across the country are also missing out on this money.”
