The recommendations from the child poverty taskforce are expected before the autumn budget on November 26, although it has been repeatedly delayed.
The Prime Minister’s Child Poverty Taskforce, set up after the election to tackle child poverty in the country, has concluded that lifting the two-child benefit cap is the “best way” to alleviate the problem.
The Times reports that the recommendations from the child poverty taskforce are expected before the autumn budget on November 26, although it has been repeatedly delayed.
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 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 Child Poverty Taskforce is jointly led by Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education, who gave the clearest sign yet that ministers could scrap the policy when last week she told the BBC that scrapping the two child cap was on the table.
“I am clear that everything is on the table, and that includes removing the two-child limit,” she added.
In an interview with the Guardian, she described the policy as “spiteful,” adding it had “punished and pushed children into hardship”.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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