The removal of the cap will benefit 560,000 families by an average of £5,310 per year and reduce child poverty by 450,000, according to the OBR.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has slammed the Conservative Party for pushing lies and false narratives over the lifting of the two-child cap, after the Tories opposed scrapping the measure which will left nearly half a million children out of poverty.
During the budget last week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the government would be lifting the two child cap which pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.
The removal of the cap will benefit 560,000 families by an average of £5,310 per year and reduce child poverty by 450,000, according to the OBR.
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by 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.
While struggling families and anti-poverty campaigners welcomed the announcement from the government, the Tories have opposed the move, with leader Kemi Badenoch saying that Reeves had created ‘Benefits street’ with her budget while also claiming that taxes would be paying for ‘benefit scroungers’.
Brown condemned the remarks, saying that the Tories should ‘hang their heads in shame’.
Writing in the Mirror, Mr Brown said: “Now Kemi Badenoch plans to run a nationwide campaign from here to the next election about what she calls ‘Benefits Street’ – telling hard pressed working families that their taxes are paying for ‘welfare scroungers’ to ‘game’ the social security system. The picture they are painting is completely wrong. Untrue. They are peddling lies.
“The majority – 60 per cent – of children affected by the rule have a parent in work. Another 15 per cent are under 3 and in single parent families where all too often the children are too young – or child care is too expensive – for the mother to work. If any of the rest were to claim incapacity benefit, they lose £50 a week from April.
“If they are unemployed and qualify for help they face a benefit cap which limits total benefits, no matter how many children you have, to £423 a week including rent – not the £40,000 a year the Tories claim.”
Brown went on to slam the Tories for their record on poverty, highlighting how they had increased the number of children living in poverty to 4.5million.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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