Benefit cap linked to families not eating

Families hit by the two-child benefit cap are much more likely to go hungry, skip meals or be unable to afford to eat healthily, according to new data that shows about one in four low income families with three or more children suffer food insecurity.

- Patrick Butler

The Food Foundation think tank is calling on the government to scrap the two-child limit as part of a package of measures that it argues would cut child poverty and reduce hunger.

Overall, 14% of UK households comprising 7.2 million adults and 2.7 million children experienced food insecurity last month, meaning they could not afford food, skipped meals or did not eat for a whole day, the foundation's Iatest survey found.

The figures came as the government suspended the whip from seven Labour MPs who voted for a Scottish National party amendment to the king's speech on Tuesday that called on the government to scrap (12]] the two-child benefit limit.

The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell joined fellow leftwing rebel MPs Rebecca LongBailey, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain and Zarah Sultana in being suspended.

The two-child cap prevents parents on universal credit claiming benefit support for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017. This means families lose out on £3,455 a year for each child affected, subjecting many to severe hardship.