Pressure grows to scrap two-child benefits cap

PRESSURE is building on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child benefit cap, as new figures showed more than one and a half million children across the UK are affected.

An independent think tank has said that the majority of children in large families will fall below the poverty line by the end of this Parliament five years from now, unless the policy is abolished.

The latest statistics, which are a rise of 100,000 in a year, have prompted renewed calls from charities and campaigners for the cap to be ditched, something Labour has not committed to. Figures published on Thursday by the Department for Work and Pensions showed there were 1.6 million children living in households affected by the policy as of April this year, up from 1.5 million to April 2023.

Of these, 52% of children were in households with three children, 29% in households with four children, and 19% in households with five or more children.

Last month, before becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir said he would scrap the two-child limit "in an ideal world" but added that "we haven't got the resources to do it at the moment."