Calls to scrap two-child benefit cap over child poverty link
'Bold action' is needed, the campaign said ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves's spending review this month, as they called for the cap to be scrapped as soon as possible.
The policy means parents only receive support for up to two children through the universal credit system.
Analysis of the child poverty rate and the proportion of children affected by the two-child limit found that the two are 'extremely highly correlated', adding to evidence that the cap is a 'major driver of child poverty across the UK'.
In the North East, West Midlands and Wales, around nine out of 10 constituencies were found to have a child poverty rate higher than one in four.
Birmingham Ladywood, Dewsbury and Batley and Bradford West were among those with the highest rates.
Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor are under pressure to respond to mounting calls for the two-child benefit cap to be axed at a cost of around £3.5 billion.
Ministers have reportedly been considering scrapping it as part of their child poverty strategy, which was due to be published in the spring but is now set to come out in the autumn so it can be aligned with the Chancellor's budget.
Dan Paskins, vice-chairman of the End Child Poverty Coalition, said the data presents a 'bleak picture of life' for the UK's children.
'A record number are now in poverty and this is under the noses of our MPs, particularly Cabinet members. 80% of Keir Starmer's Cabinet represent constituencies with higher-than-average child poverty rates.
'The time for action is now, and the Comprehensive Spending Review and forthcoming child poverty strategy should involve bold action.
'Due to the analysis's finding (of) a strong correlation between child poverty rates in local areas and the number of children impacted by the two-child limit to universal credit, it is essential this policy is scrapped as soon as possible.'
A Government spokesperson said: 'This Government is determined to bring down child poverty.
'We've already expanded free breakfast clubs, introduced a cap on the cost of school uniforms, increased the national minimum wage for those on the lowest incomes, uprated benefits in April and supported 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a fair repayment rate on universal credit deductions.
'We will publish an ambitious child poverty strategy later this year to ensure we deliver fully-funded measures that tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty across the country.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Channel 4
16 minutes ago
- Channel 4
Aid groups warn against aid drops as Gaza continues to starve
Sir Keir Starmer says the UK has plans to airdrop supplies of aid into Gaza and evacuate sick children – but leading charities say that will do nothing to reverse the deepening starvation. The United Nations says it has been unable to deliver and distribute urgently needed aid that's waiting at the border, because of Israeli restrictions and lack of safety. This report by Zahra Warsame contains highly distressing images.
The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Labour must speed up plans to shut all asylum hotels, says party's red wall chief
Labour must shut down all asylum hotels 'a lot quicker' than its current plan to put a stop to them by the end of the current parliament in 2029, the chairman of the party's red wall group of MPs has said. Jo White, the MP for Bassetlaw, who leads a caucus of around 40 MPs in the party's traditional heartlands, said Chancellor Rachel Reeves ' plan to axe the use of asylum hotels by 2029 needed to be sped up. There are currently around 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels around the UK. Anti-migrant demonstrations last week outside one of those hotels, in Epping, led to more than a dozen arrests. The hotel was thrust into the spotlight after a man living there was charged with sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity. The man, from Ethiopia, has denied the offences and remains on remand in custody. Ms White told The Telegraph: 'There's a commitment to close down the hotels by the end of the parliamentary term. I think we all want it to be a lot, lot quicker than that.' 'There is a huge sense of unfairness because people work hard here in this country and commit to supporting the country and then there's the sense that what asylum hotels cost is a huge drag on what should be invested into our NHS, our schools and our infrastructure. 'So they have to close, we have to get those asylum hotels cleared out.' She added that she believes Labour ministers share her frustrations and went on to urge Sir Keir Starmer to 'stop the incentives' for those seeking to reach the UK illegally. A record 24,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, the highest tally for the first half of the year since records began in 2018. It represents a 48 per cent rise compared to the first six months of last year. Ms White welcomed home secretary Yvette Cooper 's plan to share asylum‑hotel locations with food‑delivery firms, calling it a sensible measure to crack down on illegal working. She also urged Sir Keir Starmer and Ms Cooper to revisit the idea of national identity cards, a proposal repeatedly ruled out by Downing Street. Reflecting on last week's demonstrations in Epping, however, she described the scenes as 'really frightening and quite scary', adding that while anger is understandable, violence against asylum seekers could not be condoned. It was revealed last week that plans to reduce the number of asylum hotels could see migrants rehoused in vacant residential properties and council‑owned homes. Public concern over the scheme has intensified as Sir Keir has vowed to significantly reduce both legal and illegal migration. At the same time, more than 40,000 failed asylum seekers remain in limbo, having appealed against their decisions and still requiring housing. A government spokesman said that since taking office, ministers had acted immediately to fix the asylum system, closing hotels and removing over 35,000 people with no right to be here.
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Give grooming victims role in Islamophobia definition, suggests Badenoch
Grooming gang victims should help draft the Government's definition of Islamophobia, Kemi Badenoch has suggested. The Conservative Party leader has urged the Prime Minister to suspend the current 'secretive process' to draft the definition and introduce 'full public scrutiny'. She suggested such scrutiny would include adding representatives of victims of the grooming gangs, along with counter-terror experts and free speech activists, to the working group drawing up the definition. In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, seen by The Telegraph, Ms Badenoch said: 'Why has the Government refused to include counter-terror experts, free speech campaigners, and representatives of grooming gang victims in their working group?' She said the definition currently being drafted risked 'enabling a de facto blasphemy code' and letting 'fear of offence compromise national security'. Writing to Sir Keir on Friday, Ms Badenoch said: 'I urge the Government to suspend this process entirely, or at the very least ensure full public scrutiny by reopening the call for evidence, and publishing all the consultation responses and recommendations of the working group.' 'Establishing a definition of 'Islamophobia' will further hinder honest discussion of grooming gangs,' she claimed, adding that 'a definition that chills speech will only make it harder to confront Islamist extremism'. She argued 'the term 'Islamophobia' conflates criticism of ideas with hatred of people'. While the term 'anti-Muslim hatred' has been floated as an alternative title for the definition, Ms Badenoch also appeared to dismiss this in her letter to the Prime Minister. She wrote: 'Anti-Muslim hatred is focused on hatred of a people, and there are existing laws to protect against discrimination.' Though it is not clear which definition would be proposed by the panel, the Labour Party has formally adopted for internal purposes the definition of Islamophobia drafted by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. Critics of the APPG definition point to one part which appears to state that using the phrase 'sex groomer' in relation to a person of Muslim background may be Islamophobic. Dominic Grieve, a former Tory MP and chairman of the working group drafting the Islamophobia definition, previously wrote the foreword to the APPG's 2018 report on its Islamophobia definition which included the apparent reference to grooming gangs. Ms Badenoch suggested an Islamophobia definition would make the country less secure. She wrote to Sir Keir: 'We must not let fear of offence compromise national security. Islamist extremism remains the UK's most lethal threat. Yet still, people are scared of causing offence.' Ms Badenoch warned Sir Keir that 'the panel is not impartial' and accused some of its leading members of 'minimising the role of Asian Muslim men in grooming gangs'. She went on to characterise the panel's work as a 'secretive process' and said 'it appears the process is predetermined'. Ms Badenoch has identities 'a disturbing trend in religiously motivated intimidation, from the case of the Batley Grammar School teacher still in hiding after being hounded out of his job by angry mobs, to violent threats against MPs, cinemas cancelling film screenings, and schoolboys suspended for dropping a copy of a Quran.' This week, a businesswoman who is helping to draw up the definition of Islamophobia for Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, has become embroiled in a conflict of interest row. Akeela Ahmed is one of five people on a working group advising Ms Rayner on the definition. On Monday, Ms Rayner's department announced that the British Muslim Trust – which Ms Ahmed is due to lead as chief executive – would receive up to £1 million a year to monitor incidents of Islamophobia and 'raise awareness' of hate crime.
