Lifting two-child cap ‘would help a lot’

Lifting the two-child benefit cap would “help a lot” to pay for everyday essentials, a mum-of-three in Bradford has said.

There has been speculation that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves might use her Budget speech later this week to scrap the cap, which currently means parents can only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.

Imtyaz Begum, who receives benefits for her eldest children, aged seven and nine, but not for her youngest, aged four, said she would welcome an end to the two-child benefit cap.

“It would give me that little bit extra for the third child, meaning I won’t be scrimping and saving for my last pennies. It would be nice,” she said.

“I’ve got £55 left. It’s got to last me nine days – and that’s basically on food – so I’ve got to budget as much as I can, it will be hard,” she explained.

The two-child cap was introduced by Conservative chancellor George Osborne and it applies to third, or subsequent, children born after 6 April 2017.

A total of 1.6 million children are living in larger families who cannot claim these means-tested benefits as a result.

If the cap had not been introduced, affected families could have received an average of £4,400 in benefit entitlements a year, roughly a tenth of their total disposable income, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Rachel Reeves has suggested she favoured removing limits on benefits linked to family size in this week’s Budget.

The chancellor previously told the BBC it was not right that children in bigger families were “penalised” through “no fault of their own”.

Caroline Goodwill, a manager at the Scholemoor Community Centre, which Ms Begum attends, said there were families that would “benefit greatly” from the cap being lifted, but she could “see both sides of it”.

“Some people will think mums are having kids so they can claim more benefit,” she said.

“But I think it would help a lot of children in this area where families are struggling.”

Ms Begum said lifting the two-child benefit cap “would help, not just myself but a lot of people out there that are struggling and who don’t want to say they’re struggling”.

“You would like to save a little for your child for a rainy day just in case you need something. It would be really great if they do lift it,” she said.

Lifting the cap was one of three suggestions made by mayors from across the north of England in a pre-budget letter to the chancellor.

In their letter to Rachel Reeves, the mayors – including Tracy Brabin, from West Yorkshire, Luke Campbell, from Hull and East Yorkshire, York and North Yorkshire’s David Skaith and Oliver Coppard, from South Yorkshire – said the move would “lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty, including over 100,000 in the North”.

“Many northern communities are disproportionately affected by the two-child benefit cap, with higher rates of child poverty. Its impact is most acute in areas of entrenched disadvantage,” the mayors’ letter stated.

“Reversing the cap would lift around 630,000 children out of poverty nationwide — with the North seeing the greatest impact. It is one of the most cost-effective and immediate levers to reduce poverty and unlock opportunity,” it added.

In their letter, the mayors also called on Rachel Reeves to invest in infrastructure, such as Northern Powerhouse Rail, and to support businesses in the north of England.

Oliver Coppard, mayor of South Yorkshire, said: “We’re confident the government are listening.

“They’ve got a whole series of concerns they’ve got to balance, and it’s not an easy financial position they’re in.

“But we are saying with one voice that these are the things that we really want the government to recognise,” he said.