Two-Child Benefits Cap Could Be Axed

As Keir Starmer confronts his first Labour revolt, ministers have hinted that the two-child benefits cap may be removed soon.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall insisted the government must ‘do the sums’ before confirming that the policy will be ditched.

The Prime Minister has been working extremely hard to quell mounting resentment among his own supporters over his unwillingness to remove the limitations on family assistance distributions. Before making a commitment, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is emphatic that the public finances must stabilise.

A King’s Speech amendment might force a vote on the matter, albeit Labour has a massive 180-point working majority, so there’s no chance of losing.

On a round of interviews, Ms Kendall warned that things could not be changed ‘overnight’.

She told Times Radio: ‘We were elected on the promise that we would only make spending commitments that we know we can keep and we are facing a dire inheritance from the Tories.

‘I’m not into a wink and a nudge politics.

‘I’m not going to look constituents in the face and tell them I’m going to do something without actually having done the sums figuring out how I’m going to pay for it, figuring out how we transform opportunity for those children, not just in terms of their household income, which is essential, but about having sustained improvements to helping people get work and get on in work, more childcare, early years support, sorting out the dire state of people’s housing.

‘It’s got to be part of a much bigger approach.’

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said yesterday that the Government would look at lifting the cap as ‘one of a number of levers’ to tackle child poverty.

But she warned it would be ‘very expensive’ to reverse the policy as Labour battles with ‘really tough’ public finances.

Around 20 Labour backbenchers have already pledged to support an amendment to the King’s Speech demanding the Government ‘abolish’ the cap.

Ex-chancellor George Osborne imposed a two-child benefit cap that prohibits parents from obtaining child tax credit or universal credit for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.

Before becoming PM, Sir Keir said he would ditch the two-child limit ‘in an ideal world’ but added that ‘we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment’.

The Resolution Foundation has calculated that abolishing the two-child limit would cost the Government somewhere between £2.5billion and £3.6billion in 2024/25 but said such costs are ‘low compared to the harm that the policy causes’.

The problem that we have is the NHS is overrun, and now has its issues. We are lacking in school places, we are lacking in infrastructure, and we are short on housing stock, but yet our government encourage immigrants to enter our country, have loads of children, and then tell the good British people that if we have the cheek to have more than two children we will not get child benefits for them.

We are being outbred by our guests, and now the good British people can’t afford housing or acquire council housing because there is not enough housing stock and more and more British citizens are choosing not to have any children at all, and our government have allowed this to happen, but it has to stop!