Two-child benefit cap must go, Labour told

Failing to abolish the two-child benefit limit would wreck the government's child poverty ambitions and risk creating levels of hardship not seen under a Labour government for more than half a century, an analysis has warned.

- Patrick Butler

The Resolution Foundation said “political courage” was required if ministers were to reverse trends that, left unaddressed, would push the rate of child poverty to a historic high by the end of the decade.

It advised the government against introducing half-measures that would dampen the impact of the two-child limit - such as lifting the limit for families in work - saying this would have little or no meaningful impact on overall child poverty rates.

“In one fell swoop, the government could reduce the number of children growing up in poverty by 330,000 today and save a further 150,000 children from that fate by 2029-30, if it were bold enough to scrap the two-child limit in full,” the analysis said.

Aside from the economic and moral cases, the thinktank suggested that failing to emulate some of its Labour predecessors by reducing child poverty would tarnish the government's social justice legacy.

Labour's 2024 election manifesto promised an "ambitious strategy" to bring down poverty rates.