Huge coalition calls for ending of benefits cap

AN UNPRECEDENTED coalition of nearly 90 organisations from around the North East have come together to call on the Chancellor to end the two-child benefits cap.

- GRAEME WHITFIELD

As well as antipoverty campaigners, business groups, charities, youth organisations, politicians and churches have joined the call.

It is believed that around 70,000 children and young people in the North East are affected by the benefits cap, which means that families cannot receive Universal Credit support for a third or subsequent child.

Lifting the cap is widely believed to be the easiest way to reduce child poverty, but the Government has so far said that it is not able to afford it.

The Government has said that it will publish a long-awaited strategy to reduce child poverty in the next few weeks. There are concerns that the state of the public finances and the recent U-turn on welfare cuts may have made it less likely for ministers to lift the cap.