Mayor calls for two-child benefit cap to be removed

MOVE WOULD 'MAKE A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE' TO THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES' IN THE REGION

- By GRAEME WHITFIELD

NORTH East mayor Kim McGuinness has repeated her call for the Government to lift the controversial two-child benefit cap as she launched a scheme to reduce child poverty in the region.

Ms McGuinness has launched a £28.6m plan that includes a number of schemes to help local families.

But as fears grow that recent U-turns on winter fuel payments and welfare changes have reduced the Government's ability to remove the benefit cap, Ms McGuinness said that scrapping the previous Government's benefits restrictions was the "natural next step" after a number of Government polices aimed at helping struggling families.

Antipoverty campaigners in the region are also pressuring the Government to change the policy.

Ms McGuinness was speaking as she outlined a four-year programme agreed by the North East Combined Authority that includes a health-in-pregnancy grant for expectant mothers, the expansion of a baby box programme, wider youth provision and cheaper public transport for young people leaving care. There are a total of 36 schemes in the plan.

The mayor has previously made reducing child poverty the issue by which she wants her time in office to be judged. Recent figures showed that 120,000 children in the North East mayoral area - almost a third of its young people - are growing up in poverty.