Overview
- Deputy leader Lucy Powell said the cap should be lifted in full urgently, warning at least 40,000 children are pushed into deep poverty each year while it remains.
- Education secretary Bridget Phillipson called the policy a brake on children’s life chances in the North East and said the government’s child poverty strategy will be published soon.
- Gordon Brown told a CPAG event the rule must be removed entirely and backed higher gambling levies to fund it, citing IPPR analysis that could raise about £3.2bn and lift up to 500,000 children out of poverty.
- The Treasury is reported to be examining alternatives to repeal — raising the limit to three or four children or introducing a taper — with estimates of about £2.4bn for a three-child limit in 2029/30 versus roughly £3–£3.5bn for full abolition.
- Official figures put 4.45 million children in relative low income to March 2024, campaigners say the cap pulls around 109 children into poverty each day, and George Osborne has defended the original rationale to MPs.