Latest news with #benefitcap
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer says he wants to cut child poverty before next election
The prime minister told MPs on the Commons liaison committee it was his aim to cut the number of children living in poverty by the end of the parliament, going further than the manifesto pledge his party made before last year's election. Starmer's target will renew focus on ending the two-child benefit cap, which poverty campaigners say is the most efficient way to take children out of poverty but would cost an estimated £3.6bn a year
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer tells MPs he wants to cut child poverty before next election
Keir Starmer said he wants to reduce child poverty by the end of the parliament, as the prime minister comes under mounting pressure to end the two-child benefit cap. The prime minister told MPs on Monday it was his aim to cut the number of children living in poverty by the time of the next election, going further than the manifesto pledge his party made before last year's election. Starmer's target will renew focus on ending the two-child cap, which poverty campaigners say is the most efficient way to take children out of poverty but would cost an estimated £3.6bn a year. Speaking to members of parliament's liaison committee, the prime minister said: 'We've set up a designated taskforce to look specifically to child poverty, to devise our strategy, and I have oversight of that, so that everybody can see it's a No 10/prime minister priority in what we're doing.' Asked by Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury select committee, whether it was his aim to cut child poverty this parliament, he replied: 'Yes. The last Labour government got child poverty down, and I want to get child poverty down.' His comments go further than the 2024 party manifesto, which promised to 'develop an ambitious strategy to reduce poverty'. But the government remains unclear on how it intends to meet the prime minister's target, with the results of the child poverty taskforce expected later this year. Starmer has previously said he wants to end the cap 'when fiscal conditions allow' but ministers said this has been made harder recently by the government's decision to abandon planned cuts to disability benefits in the face of a Labour rebellion. Child poverty rates have been rising for most of the last decade, and nearly a third of children now live in poverty, according to campaign groups. Ending the two-child cap, which was imposed by the Conservatives in 2017, would be a costly measure but one that experts say would have the most direct impact on poverty rates per pound spent. The Child Poverty Action Group says scrapping it would take 350,000 children out of poverty overnight – reducing the rate by seven percentage points. Starmer came under heavy criticism during Monday's hearing with the chairs of all 32 Commons select committees – even from his Labour colleagues over the government's record on poverty and living standards. Debbie Abrahams, the chair of the work and pensions select committee, said she had been 'ashamed' by the initial proposals in the government's welfare bill, against which she helped lead the rebellion. 'This was poor legislation,' she said. 'It was designed to save money for the Treasury by cutting support to sick and disabled people. It was so far removed from Labour values of fairness and social justice, let alone compassion and common decency. I have to say I felt ashamed.' Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Liam Byrne, the chair of the business select committee, warned that government policies were helping make the bottom 40% of households worse off. 'The bottom 40% of households, they're not going to be better off in three years' time,' he said. 'They're actually going to be £1,200 a year worse off.' Byrne urged Starmer to commit to raising capital gains tax to give lower-paid people a tax cut – something the prime minister declined to rule out. Starmer did however say he wanted to sign further deals with the EU following on from the government's recent 'reset', specifically on cooperation over medicines and making it easier for touring musicians and other artists to travel around the continent. 'They're not the only areas, but these are common sense changes that we could make to our arrangements with the EU, which have, in my view, very little to do with the vote in 2016.' The prime minister added that he had been 'quite uncomfortable' about the Afghanistan superinjunction, which hid a major data breach and secret relocation scheme. The prime minister called the scheme and the superinjunction a 'shocking inheritance' from the previous government, even though his ministers extended the legal tool twice and only lifted it after a year in power.
BBC News
5 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Mothers lose two-child benefit cap 'rape clause' case
Two women who conceived their eldest children when they were in abusive relationships have lost a legal challenge to rules around the so-called "rape clause" to the two-child benefit non-consensual conception exception allows universal credit (UC) recipients to claim benefits for more than two children - but only if the third or subsequent children were conceived mothers brought legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), saying the rules breached their human rights.A DWP spokesperson said victims of rape and coercion should be treated with "dignity and respect" but the court decision was about how the policy was being implemented. The policy leaves some women unable to use the exception if their first two children are conceived in rape but they have further children in consensual relationships.A previous hearing at Leeds Administrative Court heard both women were young and vulnerable when they began relationships in their teens and first became Monaghan KC, representing the women, said both were subject to regular violence and first woman conceived her two eldest children through rape and was told she could not claim the benefit for her third and fourth children, both of whom were conceived consensually in a later long-term was initially paid the child element of UC for the third child, but this was later cancelled, after the fourth child was second woman, a mother of six, was subjected to domestic abuse and violent and coercive behaviour by former partners with whom she had Monaghan said she had older children in care and two living with her, but then one of the older children returned to her was refused an exception to the two-child limit under these "ordering provisions".The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), which provided the women's legal representation, said that while the first woman was eventually granted an exception for her youngest child, she went for years said this amounted to thousands of pounds of support which will not be backdated. Mrs Justice Collins Rice said the two women were survivors of "appalling relationship abuse" which involved "sustained physical, sexual and psychological violence".But she also said their argument is part of the "intensely controversial" political debate about the two-child benefit said the issue must be resolved in the "political arena" and "the forum of public opinion". Ms Collins Rice concluded: "It is also a question with potential resonances in family law more generally... it is a political law reform question."Responding to the judgment, the first woman said the decision was "disappointing" but that she would "keep going and fight this to the end"."All of my choices were taken away from me for years by my abuser before I fled," she said."I've fought hard to get on with my life for me and my kids."Claire Hall, the CPAG solicitor who represented the women, said the organisation would look to appeal the said that "in the meantime all eyes are on the government which has the chance to do the right thing and abolish the inhumane two-child limit in the autumn child poverty strategy".The DWP spokesperson said: "Violence against woman and girls is a national emergency - and our mission is to halve it within a decade."This policy will be considered along with all other levers including social security reform by the Child Poverty Taskforce and the Child Poverty Strategy will be published in the autumn." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Nearly 1.7m children hit by two-child benefit cap as Labour urged to scrap ‘brutal' policy
New figures have revealed that more than 1.66 million children are living in households affected by the two-child benefit cap as campaigners ramp up calls for the controversial measure to be scrapped. The new data brings the total number of children affected by the cap since Labour came into power a year ago to 300,000. There are nearly 470,000 households facing benefit reductions due to the policy, the latest official figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show, housing nearly 1.7 million children. The government has faced intense pressure from campaigners, charities and opposition parties over the measure, which experts say is a chief driver of child poverty in the UK. Ministers have so far resisted calls to scrap the Tory-era policy, with prime minister Keir Starmer saying it could only be done when fiscal conditions allow. Shortly after Labour 's landslide victory last July, seven of the parties MPs were suspended for voting with the SNP to scrap the cap. Speculation has grown that the government may announce an end to the measure in autumn when it is due to publish its delayed child poverty strategy. Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said earlier this month that such a move was 'not off the table,' adding that ministers are 'looking at every lever' to reduce child poverty. The two-child benefit cap prevents parents from claiming universal credit or tax credit for their third child. It was introduced by the Conservatives and came into place in April 2017. It only affects applies to children who were born after 6 April 2017. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said its analysis suggests an estimated 400,000 children would be lifted out of poverty immediately if the policy was scrapped, with 109 more children pulled into poverty by the measure every day. The charity's chief executive Alison Garnham said: 'The government's moral mission to tackle child poverty will make our country a better, stronger place, but families urgently need action not just words 'Giving all kids the best start in life will be impossible until government scraps this brutal policy - and a year after the election families can't wait any longer for the help they desperately need.' Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesperson Steve Darling MP said: 'Countless children are being forced to grow up in needlessly difficult circumstances as long as this cap remains in place. These figures should focus the minds of those in Government to scrap this policy and lift thousands out of poverty. 'The Government needs to announce that they will scrap this cap as it is the most effective way to get children out of poverty and give them the best chance to succeed in life.' A government spokesperson said they are 'determined to give all children the best possible start in life'. They added: 'The Child Poverty Taskforce will publish an ambitious strategy later this year to ensure we deliver fully-funded measures that tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty across the country.'
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Experts back DfE's claim free school meals plan will lift 100,000 English children out of poverty but say only over time
Update: Date: 2025-06-05T08:27:12.000Z Title: Experts back DfE's claim free school meals plan will lift 100,000 English children out of poverty – but stress only over time Content: Good morning. Normally child poverty is not at the centre of the national political debate (although it probably should be). But yesterday, at PMQs, Kemi Badenoch did make it a lead talking point by asking Keir Starmer if he would commit to keeping the two-child benefit cap, the Osborne-era benefit cut that is seen as a key driver of child poverty. She was doing this not because she wanted to promote the Tories as supporters of child poverty (although arguably that is one interpretation of her stance), but because she knows the policy is popular with voters who accept George Osborne's argument that it is unfair for the state to pay very poor people to have more than two children when many other parents restrict the number of children they have depending on what they can afford. (Welfare experts say this is a grossly misleading caricature of why people with three or more children end up needing benefits, and that even if it was true it would be unfair to punish children, but in the court of public opinion, the Osborne argument still seems to be winning.) Badenoch was using as a classic 'wedge issue', and her question was designed to force Starmer to choose between siding with Labour MPs (who want the cap to go) and mainstream voters (who want to to stay, by almost two to one, according to some polling). Badenoch did not get very far because Starmer just dodged the question. (That does not mean she was wrong to identify this as a dilemma for Labour; it just means Starmer avoided it becoming a problem yesterday.) It is still not clear what Starmer will do about the two-child benefit cap. But he told MPs at lunchtime yesterday: 'I believe profoundly in driving down poverty and child poverty.' And, overnight, the government has announced a policy that has been widely welcomed and that will reduce child poverty in England. It is going to extend access to free school meals for poorer children. In a news release the Department for Education says: Over half a million more children will benefit from a free nutritious meal every school day, as the government puts £500 back into parents' pockets every year by expanding eligibility for free school meals. From the start of the 2026 school year, every pupil whose household is on Universal Credit will have a new entitlement to free school meals. This will make life easier and more affordable for parents who struggle the most, delivering on the government's Plan for Change to break down barriers to opportunity and give children the best start in life. The unprecedented expansion will lift 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty. But not immediately. In an analysis, which is generally positive about the announcement, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that, although eventually 100,000 children in England will lifted out of poverty by this measure, in the short term the figure will be much lower. Christine Farquharson, associate director at IFS, explains: Offering free school meals to all children whose families receive universal credit will, in the long term, mean free lunches for about 1.7 million additional children. But transitional protections introduced in 2018 have substantially increased the number of children receiving free school meals today - so in the short run, today's announcement will both cost considerably less (around £250m a year) and benefit considerably fewer pupils (the government's estimate is 500,000 children). This also means that today's announcement will not see anything like 100,000 children lifted out of poverty next year. It is the big announcement this week, linked to next week's spending review, with positive news for Labour MPs and supporters. (Yesterday's was about a £15bn transport infrastructure programme.) Westminster sceptics think the Treasury is trying to buy some goodwill ahead of an actual announcement that will generate grim headlines about spending cuts. It is also not clear whether today's child poverty story is evidence that the governnment is moving towards the abolition of the two-child benefit cap, which would have a much bigger impact on child poverty reduction, or whether it is just a substitute for it. The free school meals announcement just covers England. England often lags behind the devolved governments in welfare policy, and it is worth pointing out that they have more generous provision on free school meals anyway. In Scotland all children get them for their first five years in primary schools, in Wales all primary school children get them, and in Northern Ireland a means test applies, but it is more generous than the English one. In Labour-run London all primary school pupils also get free school meals. Here is the agenda for the day. 9.30am: Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office minister, takes questions in the Commons. Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting a school in the south-east of England, where he is due to speak to broadcasters. After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons, takes questions from MPs on next week's Commons business. 11am: Mel Stride, shadow chancellor, gives a speech at the RSA thinktank where he will say the Tories will 'never again' risk the economy with unfunded tax cuts like those in Liz Truss's mini-budget. 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. 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