CALLS to drop the two-child benefit cap intensified today after new figures showed almost 1.7 million children are affected by the policy.

Dubbed the “sibling penalty,” the rule has restricted access to benefits for families with a third or later-born child since its introduction in 2017.

New figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions show there are 1.66m children impacted by the limit – an increase of 37,150 on the previous year.

According to End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC), one in nine children live in a family whose income is reduced by the policy.

Single-parent households, which are more likely to be headed by women, make up 54 per cent of those affected.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC last year that she could not promise to scrap the limit without saying where the £3 billion annual cost “is going to come from.”

The government’s “child poverty task force” was expected to publish a strategy this spring, but its release has now been delayed.

ECPC chairman Joseph Howes said: “We have heard the government say that they are looking at all ‘the available levers’ to reduce child poverty. 

“We all know that this is the lever that needs pulling first – backed up by the government’s own data released today. It’s time for the government to act.”

Katie, who lives in a family impacted by the two-child limit, said: “All children matter and are meant to be valued equally. 

“Yet for families like mine, the government have decided that depending on your birth order – they will determine which child deserves to have support to lift them out of poverty.”

Dan Paskins from Save the Children UK said: “Almost 40,000 more children are being punished just for having siblings. 

“Behind every number is a child missing out on essentials like food, clothing and a decent home, through no fault of their own.

“No child should be treated as less deserving simply because of when they were born. 

“There is no way to reduce child poverty in this parliament without scrapping the two-child limit.“

A government spokesperson said: “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.”