Keir Starmer’s Labour party has been slammed for leaving poverty-stricken children ‘without any joy’.
Pressure is building for the PM to U-turn on his position on the controversial two-child benefit cap, which sparked rebellion within the party and saw seven MPs have the whip suspended for six months.
The policy, introduced back in 2017, prevents parents from claiming Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit for more than two children. It does not apply to child benefit, a weekly payment which is made for every child someone has.
It comes as data shows that a staggering 4.3 million chilren are living in poverty acrosss the UK, with many families resorting to sleeping on the floor, skipping school, and having to choose between heating or eating.
Children’s charity Buttle has now called for ‘urgent intervention’ to pull children from poverty, arguing Labour should lift the two-child benefit limit in October’s budget reports Birmingham Live
In a piece for Big Issue, Buttle CEO Joseph Howes argued Universal Credit plays an important role in providing “adequate, liveable income to all families in need”.
He interviewed several parents affected by the controversial rule, with some admitting they eat just one bowl of cereal a day to make sure their kids are well-fed.
“Sometimes they’re crying with hunger, and I know I’m filling them with empty calories just to tide them over,” one anonymous parent shared. Another agreed, stating that her son now lives “without any joy”.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank, external has estimated that removing the two-child benefit cap would eventually cost the government £3.4bn a year, which is around three per cent of the total budget for working-age benefits.
But new research suggests scrapping the policy could ease the burden on the NHS and lead to “substantial improvements to child health”.
Published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, the study claims getting rid of the limit could even avoid hundreds of infant deaths.
