Overview

• The two-child cap, introduced in 2017, limits Universal Credit and child tax credits to the first two children and affects about 1.6 million children.
• Lifting the cap would cost around £3.5 billion and, according to the Resolution Foundation, could lift 470,000 children out of poverty.
• Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson confirmed that scrapping the policy is under active consideration by ministers.
• Regional data show child poverty rates of 30 percent in the North East, prompting local campaigners to call for the cap’s removal.
• The proposal has divided Labour figures, with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown backing abolition and David Blunkett warning it may encourage unaffordable family sizes.