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A golden opportunity to lift thousands of kids out of poverty
The Labour government must rescind the two-child benefit cap or risk irreparable damage to its legacy, writes TOMMY KANE
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THIS coming Wednesday Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have the chance to lift over half a million British children out of poverty by scrapping the two-child limit.
If this Labour government really wants to deliver change, then urgently addressing child poverty must surely be a priority.
No review is needed about whether scrapping the two-child limit will help rescue child poverty, and no more consultations are required for us to understand whether the lives of children currently mired in a daily grind of survival will be improved if Labour abolishes this “morally odious” policy.
Last week Unity Consulting Scotland published a report, commissioned by the Wheatley Group. Titled Every Penny Counts — The Struggle to Survive on the Two-Child Limit, this report set out in some detail the impact of the two-child limit on Wheatley tenants captured by the policy, and how it is entrenching and exacerbating child poverty.
Child poverty among larger families is on the rise and this incorporates families with one or more parents in work as well as out.
Single parents are disproportionately affected, as are minority groups and communities. The rise has a direct correlation with the two-child limit.
It is hard not to conclude that these rising trends are tantamount to state-sponsored child poverty.
The impact on those affected cannot be overstated. We spoke to parents and families affected and we questioned many more. Their testimony and survey responses are heartbreaking and enraging in equal measure.
It is a national scandal that successive Tory governments have sought to undermine and dismantle the welfare state and in doing so affected the current lives and the future life chances of so many children.
Our research found that food insecurity is endemic, that parents are having to choose between heating and eating or paying their bills. That debt is commonplace and that parents are struggling to buy basics for their children such as shoes and clothes.
As for treats, holidays, day trips, after-school activities such as football, swimming and dancing, they are out of reach for most of the families we spoke to. As one parent said, “luxuries are a no-go.”
Scrapping the two-child limit would have a massively beneficial impact on the families we spoke to. The additional income would ensure their basic needs could be paid for, and their quality of life enhanced allowing them to enjoy the types of lives that other children and families take for granted.
It would help to reduce food insecurity, fuel poverty and provide the shoes and clothes that children need when they need them.
It would also provide the platform for children to take part in sporting and cultural activities and help them to identify and realise their potential in ways that are currently denied to them.
It would also alleviate debt and reduce that terrible choice of choosing between heating and eating that so many families are making each day as they struggle to survive.
As recent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) research suggests, this single policy change would immediately take over half a million children out of poverty; improving the lives of children in the here and now and also their future life outcomes — albeit they also say that the benefit cap must go to ensure even more children are lifted out of poverty.
Conversely, if Labour doesn’t scrap it, then it will preside over an increase in child poverty as more children and families are affected by the two-child limit over time. Surely this is not a legacy that any Labour PM and chancellor would want on their record?
The experience and voices of those affected make a compelling case for the abolition of the two-child limit. No family and no child should be experiencing the challenges and difficulties that we have uncovered during the course of this research. Child poverty and the state’s role in entrenching it is a deep stain on our society.
For the sake of the parents we spoke to and all those other families across the country affected, Labour must scrap the two-child limit when it unveils its first Budget on October 30.
Please find all the testimony from all parents, and the survey evidence from the full report. It can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/TwoChildCap.
Tommy Kane is director of Unity Consulting Scotland.
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