Benefits Two-child limit should be scrapped in full, says Phillipson

Bridget Phillipson is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to scrap the two-child benefit limit entirely in next month’s budget, with the education secretary telling the Guardian the evidence is clear that it needs to be removed.

- Kiran Stacey Policy editor

Phillipson, who is finalising a report to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on child poverty, said abolishing the rule was the most cost effective way to make lives better for young disadvantaged people.

Her intervention comes after the Guardian revealed that Reeves is exploring a “tapered” system that would remove the cap in part but not wholly - for example, by moving the cap to three or four children.

Officials say the chancellor will find it difficult to go against the findings of the child poverty taskforce, which Phillipson co-chairs - meaning Reeves is under more pressure than ever to find the money to abolish the cap.

Phillipson told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast: “I’ve been clear in public and in conversations with colleagues about what the evidence tells us and what needs to happen. Every year that passes, because of the two-child limit, more children move into poverty and the evidence is there for all to see.”