City councillors call for two-child benefit cap to be scrapped

PLYMOUTH'S Labour councillors are urging Chancellor Rachel Reeves to scrap the two-child benefit cap when she delivers her Budget next week.

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The call to lift the cap - which has been identified as a reason for a sharp increase in numbers of children living in poverty since its introduction - comes from Cllr Maria Lawson, the council's champion for building bridges to opportunity.

She has submitted a motion which will be debated at Monday's full council meeting (November 24) - two days before the chancellor of the exchequer gives her budget speech.

Already there has been intense speculation that the chancellor will bin the two-child benefit cap, introduced by the previous Tory government to restrict child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children born after April 2017.

Cllr Lawson's motion asks the council leader to write to the chancellor encouraging her to tackle child poverty by lifting the two-child benefit cap.