Warning over impact of two-child benefit cap as thousands of parents ‘skipping or reducing meals’ due to high costs

A WARNING has been issued over the two-child benefit cap and its impact on food insecurity.

New research is urging that action is "desperately needed" to relieve the pressure on families across the UK who are going hungry.

Almost a quarter of families with three children experienced food insecurity last month, according to The Food Foundation.

The charity said the findings show the impact of the two-child benefit cap.

The cap limits the amount of some of the financial support families can receive to two kids.

It means that parents can't claim the child elements of Universal Credit or tax credits, worth up to £3,455 per year, for third or subsequent children born after April 2017.

Over 1.6million children don't get £288 a month in extra support due to the rule, according to DWP figures.

The Food Foundation's online survey asked 6,177 adults in the UK whether in the previous month, they had reduced the size of or skipped meals because they couldn't afford or get access to food, or if they had been hungry but not eaten due to unaffordability or inaccessibility of food.

The charity's polling, carried out by YouGov, found that 14% of households were judged by these measures to have experienced food insecurity.

When it came to households with children, almost a fifth (18%) reported experiencing food insecurity, compared with 12% of households without children.

The charity said the findings also demonstrate the impact of the two-child benefit limit – which restricts child tax credit and Universal Credit to the first two children in most households.

Some 23% of families with three children and 26% of families with four or more children experienced food insecurity, according to the survey.

This is compared with 17% of households with one or two children experiencing food insecurity.

Single-adult households with children were nearly twice as likely to be food insecure as households with multiple adults and a child or children, at 31% compared to 16%.

The research was carried out in the week leading up to the General Election.

The new Prime Minister Kier Starmer has been facing mounting pressure from his own backbenchers over the cap.

The Sun previously revealed that the government would not rule out scrapping the measure.

Earlier this week, Sir Keir survived his fiirst rebellion in Westminster after rebel MPs tried to defy him by supporting an SNP amendment to the King's Speech to scrap the two-child cap.

Sir Keir insisted the government must do "the sums" before committing to scrap the policy - and he argued it won't be a "silver bullet" for fixing child poverty.

Campaigners have long been calling for the policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2015 and which has been in effect since 2017, to be scrapped.

Child Poverty Action Group says that scrapping the two-child limit would lift 300,000 children out of poverty and reduce the depth of poverty to 700,000 children.

Voices of support for that call have included the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who has previously described it as “cruel” and a policy which is “neither moral nor necessary”.

This week seven Labour MPs were suspended by the party after backing an SNP motion to scrap the welfare measure in a vote in Parliament on Tuesday.

While MP Kim Johnson said she had voted with the Government “for unity”, she warned that the strength of feeling within the party was “undeniable”.

“We moved the dial, the campaign will continue,” she said.

Figures published earlier this month by the Department for Work and Pensions showed there were 1.6million children living in households affected by the policy as of April this year, up from 1.5million in April 2023.

Labour has cited spending controls as a reason for not being able to immediately ditch the policy, indicating there would be no change to the policy without economic growth.

The Resolution Foundation has said that abolishing the two-child limit would cost the Government somewhere between £2.5 billion and £3.6 billion in 2024/25, but that such costs are “low compared to the harm that the policy causes”.

The Government’s formation of a Child Poverty Taskforce to inform a strategy to tackle the root causes has been welcomed by The Food Foundation, but the charity said: “immediate action that is so desperately needed to relieve the families across the UK who are going hungry was sorely lacking in the King’s Speech”.

Shona Goudie, policy and advocacy manager at the foundation, re-stated the call for the cap to be scrapped but said there are other measures the new Government can take too.

She said: “We urge the Government to set reducing children’s food insecurity as a goal for the child poverty task force and Children’s Wellbeing Bill, and to take critical next steps to achieve this including ensuring the national minimum/living wage and benefit levels cover the cost of basic essentials, including food; extending eligibility for nutritional safety nets including free school meals at lunchtime and Healthy Start; and abolishing the two-child benefit limit.”

A Government spokesperson said: “No child should be in poverty – that’s why our new cross-government task force will develop an ambitious child poverty strategy to tackle the crisis.

“Alongside this urgent work, we will roll out free breakfast clubs in all primary schools to give children the best start in life, while delivering on a plan to grow the economy and make work pay for hardworking families across the country.”

ADDITIONAL CHILDCARE HELP

Up to 30 free childcare hours

You may be able to get free childcare for your child aged nine months to four years old if you live in England.

The number of hours working parents can claim depends on the age of their child.

If your child is:

• Nine months to two years old, you can get 15 hours per week of free childcare
• Three to four years old, you can get 30 hours per week of free childcare

From September 2025, children aged nine months to two years old will qualify for 30 hours per week of free childcare

To qualify, you'll need to earn at least the equivalent of the national minimum wage for 16 hours a week.

Both parents will need to earn the equivalent of at least £166 per week, each with a taxable income of no more than £100,000. 

Your two-year-old can also get free childcare if you live in England and get any of the following benefits:

• Income support
• Income-based jobseeker's allowance (JSA)
• Income-related employment and support allowance (ESA)
• Universal Credit and your household income is £15,400 a year or less after tax, not including benefit payments
• The guaranteed element of pension credit
• Child tax credit, working tax credit (or both), and your household income is £16,190 a year or less before tax

Universal Credit childcare costs

Parents on Universal Credit and in a paid job can have up to 85% of their childcare costs covered, up to £1,014.63 a month for one child and £1,739.37 a month for two or more children.

It doesn't matter how many hours you work.

If you live with a partner, you both need to work to qualify.

You usually have to pay for the childcare and claim back the costs, but if you go back to work or increase your hours you can request for the money to be paid upfront.

Child benefit

You can get child benefit if you're responsible for a child aged under 16, or if they are under 20 and in approved education or training.

Child benefit is currently worth £25.60 a week for the eldest child or only child. For each subsequent child, parents get £16.95 a week.

The cash is paid every four weeks and there's no limit to how many children you can apply for.

Bear in mind though, that those who earn more than £60,000 a year have to start paying back some of their child benefit through the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC).

If you or your partner earns £80,000 or more, you have to pay all your entitlement back.

You have to pay the HICBC to HMRC through self-assessment.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

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