The political row escalated in July when seven Labour MPs had the whip suspended after they rebelled and voted for an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech, calling for the two-child limit to be scrapped.
With Labour back in power for the first time in 14 years, Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from some of his backbenchers to scrap a policy introduced by the Conservatives in 2017. The two-child limit on benefits is controversial and the number of families affected is growing. The latest figures estimate 1.6 million children are impacted. The last Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, argues it is the single biggest policy keeping children in poverty in the UK.
Now, though, nearly three-fifths of families affected by the two-child limit are in work. One of those is Lewis and his partner in County Durham. They live in a blended household with four children aged between two and nine. Lewis says they only have £50 left at the end of each month, despite both working full time. While not in poverty, Lewis says the additional money the family would be able to claim if the policy was scrapped could make a huge difference in their day to day lives.
While many within the Labour Party have their doubts about the policy, the political row escalated in July when seven Labour MPs had the whip suspended after they rebelled and voted for an SNP amendment to the King’s Speech, calling for the two-child limit to be scrapped. Scrapping the two-child limit would cost billions of pounds and the government continues to argue that it can’t afford to axe it. But the charity Save the Children estimates that doing so would lift half a million children out of relative poverty.
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