BISHOPS and charities, praising the removal of the two-child profit cap, say that it’s going to lift a whole bunch of 1000’s of youngsters out of poverty. The change was announced within the Autumn Budget by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, on Wednesday afternoon.
The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown congratulated faith leaders who had long called for the policy, which had been introduced by the Conservative Chancellor George Osborne shortly after the 2015 General Election, to be scrapped.
“From April, nearly half 1,000,000 children shall be lifted out of poverty, due to their campaign, for which I thank all religious leaders,” he told the Church Times.
The Church of England’s lead bishop for child-poverty issues, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Revd Martyn Snow, said that the choice would “make a profoundly positive difference to a whole bunch of 1000’s of youngsters and their families.
“The Church of England has long called for at the present time, as we consider within the equal and unsurpassable price of each child. As we have a good time the tip of the two-child limit and commend the Government for taking motion, we’ll proceed to attract attention to the barriers — corresponding to the household profit cap — which still prevent many families from accessing vital support for his or her children.”
In the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) document — which was by accident published before Ms Reeves’s speech in error — the Government estimates that removing the two-child limit will reduce child poverty by roughly 450,000 children by 2029-30.
The recent policy signifies that parents can claim universal credit or tax credits as much as the worth of £3500 per yr for second and subsequent children born after 6 April 2017. The increased Universal Credit award will average at £5310 per family, in line with the OBR.
The changes, to take effect from April 2026, are expected to cost £2.3 billion in 2026-27 and £3 billion in 2029-30. This includes £300 million by 2029-30 to cover the estimated 25,000 additional families which can be now expected to make a Universal Credit claim.
Announcing the reform, Ms Reeves described the two-child limit as “pushing a whole bunch of 1000’s of youngsters into poverty”. As backbenchers shouted “Shame!” in response to say of the historic policy, and the Opposition jeered and waved their order papers, Ms Reeves retorted: “The thing [the Opposition] get offended about is lifting children out of poverty.”
In her response, Ms Badenoch described Ms Reeves as “spineless, shameless, and completely aimless”, and said: “If she wants to scale back child poverty, she should stop taxing their parents.”
The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, welcomed the Government’s decision. He told the Church Times: “For years, this policy has been one in all the most important drivers of kid poverty within the UK.”
The cap “forces families into unattainable decisions and deepens hardship for those already struggling”, he said. “Its removal is an important step towards restoring dignity and fairness to our welfare system and to stemming the expansion of kid poverty.”
The director of policy at Trussell, Helen Barnard, said on Wednesday that removing the “cruel” two-child limit “will protect a whole bunch of 1000’s of youngsters from growing up facing hunger and hardship”.
This would “pull 470,000 children out of severe hunger and hardship by 2027 and ease pressure on foodbanks throughout the UK”, she said. But she called for “more daring decisions to remodel lives across our communities.”
The chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, Alison Garnham, said that the changes could be “transformational for youngsters” and “a much-needed fresh start in our country’s efforts to eradicate child poverty”.
The CEO of the Children’s Society, Mark Russell, said that the change was “a watershed moment” for youngsters. “It shows that even in tough economic times government can decide to back children with daring, life changing motion.”
The chief executive of Christians Against Poverty, Stewart McCulloch, also welcomed the change as an “investment within the nation’s future residents, workforce, and well-being”.
Mr Brown, whose campaign against the cap has gathered pace in recent months, said: “I congratulate the church and faith leaders who signed letters to the Prime Minister and Chancellor and who, with many non secular organisations, demanded that the [Government] abolish the two-child rule that has condemned 1000’s of essentially the most vulnerable children to poverty.”
