The Government’s decision to abolish the controversial two-child benefit limit from April is expected to be welcomed across the North East.
It was confirmed on this lunchtime (November 26) that the cap will be removed within Universal Credit from April 2026. The decision was revealed in leaked Office for Budget Responsibilty (OBR) documents leaked more than half an hour before Chancellor Rachel Reeves stood up to deliver her budget in the House of Commons.
The move is expected to lift around 450,000 children out of poverty by 2029/30, according to the watchdog, including 70,000 in the North East.
The policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, restricts child tax credit and Universal Credit support to a family’s first two children.
Charities estimate that 109 children a day have been pushed into poverty because of the cap.
In the North East, where child poverty rates remain among the highest in the UK, more than 70,000 babies, children and young people are directly affected by the policy.
The Government had faced growing pressure from North East MPs, councils and child poverty campaigners, who argued the limit had a disproportionately damaging impact on families in areas with lower wages and higher living costs.
Education Secretary and Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Phillipson recently said there was “real urgency” in addressing the policy, describing it as a Tory measure that had inflicted “devastating” harm on children.
The confirmation that the cap will be scrapped was immediately welcomed by organisations which have long campaigned for it to go.
Read more
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- North East leaders and charities back calls to scrap two child Universal Credit cap
- Calls to scrap two-child benefit cap due to 'strong' link with child poverty
- Baby bank boss urges politicians to meet families hit by two-child benefit cap
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Unicef UK said it is a “major, necessary decision to tackle record levels of child poverty in the UK”, adding: “No child should be punished for the number of siblings they have.”
Helen Barnard, director of policy at foodbank network Trussell, described it as a “bold step which will protect hundreds of thousands of children from growing up facing hunger and hardship”, and said the Chancellor had “listened to the families and foodbanks across the UK who have been imploring her to act”.
The latest data, published by the Government earlier this year, estimated the number of children living in poverty in the UK reached a record high of 4.45 million children in the year to March 2024.
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