‘You will lift so many kids out of poverty, in London, Liverpool, in Manchester.’
The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has pleaded with the government once more to scrap the two-child benefit cap, a policy which charities and anti-poverty campaigners say is pushing thousands of children into poverty.
His call comes ahead of the budget next month, with reports indicating that the government is considering lifting the cap with officials exploring options of a tapered system instead.
However, child poverty campaigners have called for the policy to be lifted in full.
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by George Osborne as Conservative chancellor. It bars families from claiming the £292.81-a-month child element of universal credit for third and subsequent children born after April 6, 2017.
According to the Child Poverty Action Group, every day it remains in place, 109 more children are pulled into poverty by the policy. If the policy were scrapped, 350,000 children would be lifted from poverty instantly, at a cost of £2bn. The depth of poverty would be reduced for another 800,000 children.
Burnham has called on the government to adopt the proposals put forward by Gordon Brown and hike gambling taxes at the Budget in order to raise billions to tackle sky-high levels of child poverty.
During an interview with the Mirror, Burnham pleaded: “Please – the party – remove the two-child cap on benefits. You will lift so many kids out of poverty, in London, Liverpool, in Manchester. And yeah if you need to, do it via either a gambling tax or a wealth tax. That speaks to what we should do.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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