Latest news with #ChildFairnessGuarantee
Glasgow Times
26-05-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Mike Dailly: Scrapping the two-child benefit cap makes sense
We await the policy details, but over the weekend, another U-turn emerged. The UK government is now looking at scrapping the two-child benefit cap at a cost of £3.5bn per annum as a means to reduce child poverty. It appears the reality of the disastrous English council elections and looming backbench rebellions for Labour has been a 'wake-up and smell the coffee' moment for Keir Starmer. The WFP cut was said to have saved £1.4bn, so the benefit cap U-turn would be a significant fiscal event. READ MORE: Mike Dailly: Are the sands shifting on the Winter Fuel Payment cut? We may have to await the chancellor's autumn budget in October for the details of this latest U-turn; while Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, said yesterday the WFP U-turn details may be announced as early as June 11 in the chancellor's spending review statement. Mike Dailly: Scrapping the two-child benefit cap makes sense. (Image: Sourced) The two-child benefit cap was introduced in 2017 by then-Tory Chancellor George Osborne. It prevents parents from claiming the child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children. Analysis by the End Child Poverty Coalition shows that removing the cap would lift 250,000 children across the UK out of poverty. The Child Poverty Action Group claims the economic and societal effects of child poverty, including spending on public services, cost the UK £39 billion each year. If that is so, spending to save public money makes sense. Scrapping the two-child cap is a cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 250,000 children out of poverty and mean 850,000 children were in less deep poverty. READ MORE: Mike Dailly: Scottish housing Bill lacks substance A 2023 report by the Commons Education Select Committee found mental health problems and cost-of-living pressures on families are among the complex reasons for increased school absenteeism. Former Labour prime minister (PM) Gordon Brown made an intervention last week by urging the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap. The former PM described the policy as 'cruel' and said it treated third children as 'second-class citizens'. Mr Brown proposed raising £9 billion through a package of levies on the gambling industry, commercial banks, corporate philanthropy and changes to gift aid rules for higher rate taxpayers to fund a 'Child Fairness Guarantee'. All of this could help the Scottish government, which has pledged to mitigate the two-child benefit cap by April 2026. Last December, the Scottish government said the cost of mitigation would be around £150 million. That seems unlikely considering that the loss of Scottish Barnett consequentials – money to Holyrood – from the WFP was around £150m, from an overall £1.4bn saving. If the benefit cap U-turn has an overall cost of £3.5bn, the Scottish per capita share must be higher than £150m. Then you've the administrative and technical costs. As the Scottish government conceded in its consultation on mitigation this year: 'Mitigation of the two-child cap is not a straightforward task. It will require significant policy and technical work to develop and implement an appropriate solution. This includes co-operation from the UK Government around systems development, data sharing and legislation." U-turns on the WFP and benefit cap would help people in Scotland greatly by providing a simple technical solution for universal credit payments and additional funding to fully reinstate the Scottish WFP instead of the proposed £100 payment this winter.
The Herald Scotland
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Gordon Brown calls for two-child benefit cap be scrapped
Mr Brown has proposed raising £9 billion through a package of new levies on the gambling industry, commercial banks and corporate philanthropy, to fund a 'Child Fairness Guarantee'. His intervention comes as Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure to unveil long-promised proposals to reduce child poverty, with a review initially due in the spring now delayed. Reports suggest that while the Labour leader will commit to around £750 million in additional financial support for some of the poorest parents, the party will stop short of reversing the two-child cap introduced by then Chancellor George Osborne in his 2015 Budget. The policy, which came into effect in 2017, prevents households claiming child tax credit or universal credit from receiving support for a third or subsequent child born after 6 April that year. The child relative poverty rate rose from 27 per cent to 30 per cent between 2010–11 and 2022–23 — an increase of 730,000 — with the rise entirely driven by a surge in relative poverty among families with three or more children. The rate in this group jumped from 35 per cent to 46 per cent over the same period. Half of all children living in poverty now come from such families. Mr Brown warned that without urgent intervention, the number of children in poverty is set to rise by 100,000 every year, reaching 4.8 million by 2029. In a submission to the UK Government's Child Poverty Taskforce, he wrote: 'The rising levels of poverty stem largely from the long tail of austerity and are the lingering result of decisions made a decade ago by George Osborne to create a generation of austerity's children which deliberately added one million children to the poverty numbers.' He said that in some parts of Manchester and Birmingham, up to 85 per cent of children are living in poverty — with as many as 25 out of 30 pupils in some classrooms growing up in hardship. 'Every night, one million children try to sleep without a bed of their own,' he added. 'Three million regularly skip meals.' Speaking to The New Statesman, Mr Brown said: 'The Reform Party, many of the Conservative Party, the Liberals, the SNP, they all support lifting the two-child limit. 'Now, of course, it is expensive because it was designed to save a lot of money at the expense of children, but you just think of a family that has lost £66 a week overnight — their child is born, the third child, and they do not get the same amount that they get for the second child. 'It really is cruel to see a third child as almost a second-class citizen in that way, and that is what has got to change. Now, I think the government can do this because I have suggested the ways it can be funded. I think it should be hypothecated in the sense of earmarks, so that people know that the money is going for a good purpose.' The Guardian has reported that Sir Keir has instructed his team to ensure the option of tweaking the two-child cap for universal credit — or even scrapping it entirely — remains on the table as part of the child poverty review. Polling for The New Statesman found that 42 per cent of voters oppose the cap. Of those who support it, more than three-quarters say they would back its removal if shown it was a cost-effective way to reduce poverty. Writing in the same publication, Andrew Marr claimed the Prime Minister 'says in private that lifting the two-child benefit cap is his personal priority'. In the meantime, Sir Keir has ordered ministers to prepare a package of measures for the upcoming spending review in June. These could include expanded free breakfast clubs, wider eligibility for free school meals, and increased levels of child benefit. Senior Labour figures hope that a combination of targeted anti-poverty measures and partial reversals of welfare cuts will help defuse internal tensions ahead of a vote on new welfare reforms, which are expected to reduce the benefit bill by £5 billion. Sir Keir has already faced a rebellion over the two-child limit, with some Labour MPs stripped of the whip for voting against the government. Meanwhile, ministers are scrambling to contain public anger over last year's decision to means-test winter fuel payments — a move that stripped an estimated 10 million pensioners of up to £300 a year. Sir Keir this week suggested that more pensioners could become eligible for support as the economy improves, describing it as 'one of the areas we are looking at'. A new threshold could be introduced specifically for winter fuel payments, with options under consideration including extending support to those on housing or disability benefits. Raising the threshold by 20 per cent would cost around £100 million and help 400,000 families.
Daily Mirror
21-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Gordon Brown urges Keir Starmer to fix 'child poverty emergency' with major plan
Labour former PM Gordon Brown said Keir Starmer must act to help 'austerity's children' as rising levels of child poverty could see 4.8 million kids living in hardship by 2029 Gordon Brown will pile pressure on the Government to do more to fix child poverty with a plan to raise billions from taxes on gambling industry and banking profits. The former Prime Minister said Keir Starmer must act to help "austerity's children" as rising levels of child poverty could see 4.8 million kids living in hardship by 2029. Pressure is mounting on the Government to spell out its plans to lift children out of poverty as a review promised for the Spring has not yet emerged. In a submission to the Government's Child Poverty taskforce, Mr Brown proposed creating a "Child Fairness Guarantee" to ensure a minimum amount of support to afford essentials such as food and household bills. This would be funded by raising £9billion from online gambling levies, tiered interest scheme on commercial bank funds and reforms to Gift Aid and corporate philanthropy. It comes as a poll found more than 75% of UK voters believe it's morally wrong so many children go to bed hungry or without a proper place to sleep. The survey by Hope not Hate found 82% think the government should be doing more to reduce child poverty. Nearly 9 in 10 people (87%) would support taxes on from gambling industry and banking profits to fund a Child Fairness Guarantee. Mr Brown warned that the "long tail of austerity" meant numbers of children in poverty were projected to rise by 100,000 per year over this Parliament. He said: "The rising levels of poverty stem largely from the long tail of austerity and are the lingering result of decisions made a decade ago by George Osborne to create generation of austerity's children which deliberately added one million children to the poverty numbers. "Thousands more children are hit by benefit caps that have in turn created an enormous challenge for the current government's Child Poverty Review to roll back the worst of the Conservative inheritance, before even beginning to tackle future challenges." He added: "70% of the children in poverty are in working families exposing the false argument that poverty is caused by feckless or work shy parents who are part of a co-dependency culture." In cities like Birmingham and Manchester, 46% and 44% of children respectively are already living in poverty, with some communities seeing rates as high as 85%. That means in some classrooms, 25 out of 30 children are condemned to live in hardship, according to the report. Every night one million children are trying to sleep every night without a bed of their own, while each day three million children regularly skip meals due to the strains on family finances. He said: "When asked why we must act, people say our children are our future — and we all benefit if they grow up healthy, educated, and productive. The costs of inaction are greater: in poor health, increased crime, and lost contributions to the economy. 'Britons say they are embarrassed and disgusted that countries like the Netherlands and the Nordics are doing far better for their children than we are. "There is now a clear public mandate to act on the government's manifesto promise to reduce child poverty in this parliament and to "end mass dependence on emergency food parcels.' Labour committed to develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, with a taskforce appointed last summer to develop a blueprint. The PM promised at the time to "leave no stone unturned to give every child the very best start at life".
