Two-child cap change now less likely, admits Phillipson

Education secretary says welfare U-turn squeezes spending

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Scrapping the two-child benefit cap has been made harder by Sir Keir Starmer’s climbdown over last week’s welfare cuts, Bridget Phillipson has said.

The education secretary said future spending decisions had been squeezed by the £5bn U-turn over reforms to personal independence payments (PIP), the main disability benefit.

This means a change in the controversial cap, introduced when George Osborne was chancellor, is now less likely. Ms Phillipson told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that ministers are “looking at every lever and we’ll continue to look at every lever to lift children out of poverty”.

Pushed on whether the chances of the benefit cap going are now slimmer, Ms Phillipson said: “The decisions that have been taken in the last week do make decisions, future decisions harder. But all of that said, we will look at this collectively in terms of all of the ways that we can lift children out of poverty.”