‘End two-child-limit benefit policy’

THE Government’s two-child-limit benefits policy should be scrapped and families given more help if it is to tackle child poverty, a new report recommends.

The Social Mobility Commission (SMC) is calling for a shakeup of the child welfare system and for extra funding to help disadvantaged pupils.

It recommends that the twochild limit for Universal Credit (UC) and child tax credit should be scrapped so larger families are not penalised.

And it is calling for UC child payments and child benefit to be raised by at least £10 a week per child.

Around 4.3 million children – almost one-third of children in the UK – were living in poverty as of March 2020, the SMC said.

The £14bn package would lift 1.5 million children out of poverty, reducing the overall rate by 35%, the independent body estimates.

“There could not be a more pressing time for the UK Government to make an action plan,” according to its State of the Nation 2021 report.

Last week, figures from the DWP showed that more than 1.1 million children are in families affected by the two-child limit.

The UK-wide policy was introduced in April 2017 and restricts the amount of financial support families with at least three children can receive. It has been widely criticised by MPs and charities.

The SMC’s call for families to receive an extra £10 a week per child comes as the government plans to remove the £20 UC uplift introduced to help claimants during the pandemic.