BREAKING: Labour MPs cheer as Rachel Reeves abolishes DWP two-child profit restrict
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced the two-child benefit limit will be abolished in a move that will lift hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty.
In a move prompting cheers from Labour MPs, Ms Reeves announced at the Budget today she will scrap the policy introduced by Tory welfare slasher George Osborne back in 2017. It restricts child tax credits and universal credit to the first two children in a family and has been repeatedly blamed for trapping kids in poverty.
Ms Reeves said the move will also mean the “vile” rape clause – an exemption to the two-child benefit limit allowing women to claim the benefit in some circumstances – will be abolished.
Former Deputy PM Angela Rayner welcomed the move, saying: ” Ending the two-child benefit cap will help hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. Labour’s record on fighting child poverty changed my life. Now we’re doing it again for the next generation.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has previously estimated scrapping the policy would lift 630,000 kids out of poverty in the long-term. Labour MPs and ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown – who has described child poverty as a “scar on the soul of our nation” – have long called for the policy to be axed.
The issue caused major divisions in Labour’s ranks ahead of the general election and led to seven Labour MPs being stripped of the whip last summer. In the coming days the government will also publish a long-promised child poverty strategy.
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