Gordon Brown has also called on the government to lift the cap and to fund it through taxes on online gambling.
An influential left-leaning think tank, has warned the government ahead of next month’s budget that ending the two-child benefit cap with half measures will still see child poverty rise and only scrapping it in full will make a tangible difference.
The Resolution Foundation has warned the chancellor that ‘half measures’ will not suffice, ahead of reports that the government is considering lifting the current cap with officials exploring options of a tapered system instead.
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.
The Resolution Foundation said in its ‘No Half Measures’ report that ‘repealing the two-child limit at the Budget would be an unequivocal step in the right direction by the Government’.
It also warned: “Fully scrapping the two-child limit on benefits is an essential step towards achieving lower child poverty rates in 2029/30 than in 2024/25. No partial repeal of the policy is sufficient to keep child poverty rates from rising.”
Gordon Brown has also called on the government to lift the cap and to fund it through taxes on online gambling.
Lucy Powell who has just won the party’s deputy leadership contest also did so on a manifesto pledge to scrap the cap.
The authors of the new report also warn that child poverty rates will hit a historic high of 34 per cent (4.8 million children) in 2029-30 after housing costs, up from 31 per cent in 2024-25.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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