Two child limit hits single parents hardest
Nearly a million children are now affected by the policy
S INGLE parents are more than twice as likely to be affected by the two-child limit as couples.
The latest government figures have revealed that 243,270 families are currently affected by the policy, which restricts support through tax credits and universal credit to the first two children in a family.
In particular, single parents have been disproportionately affected, with 99,740 limited by the cap as of April 2020.
That works out as 5.6% of all single parents with dependent children in the UK.
In comparison, 143,540 couples are currently affected, or 2.3% of all parents living as a couple.
That’s despite the fact that couples are more likely than single parents to have three or more children.
Joe Richardson, research and policy officer for the single parent charity Gingerbread, said “No child deserves to grow up in poverty, yet the two child limit imposes this on hundreds of thousands of children every year and the numbers are growing.
“For the children of single parents, who are twice as likely as children of couple families to live in poverty, this has a particularly devastating impact.
“It is alarming that despite single parents being less likely than couples to have more than two children, they are still more likely to be hit by the policy, suggesting this policy punishes low-income single parents disproportionately.
“No child should be considered any less valuable simply because of when they were born. This is why Gingerbread supports the Child Poverty Action Group’s campaign to lift the two child limit to ensure all children can thrive."
The policy means a reduction in support of £53.50 per week for each child who does not qualify for support, compared to before it was introduced.
As the limit only affects families with a third or subsequent child born on or after 6 April 2017, only a relatively small number of families were impacted at first, but the number has been creeping up.
Now, nearly a million children across the country are living in a family that has seen their child benefits capped - around 911,000 in total.
The policy was introduced with the official aim of ensuring that families receiving benefits should “face the same financial choices about having children as those supporting themselves solely through work”.
However, in practice in-work as well as out-of-work benefits are affected, so the constraint affects those in low paid jobs as well as those not currently in employment.
In fact, the figures show that nearly three in every five families affected by the policy were households with working adults.