12 May 2024 , 07:43
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Tory hardliner Suella Braverman has called for the cruel two-child benefit limit to be axed.
The former Home Secretary, who has previously taken a tough stance on benefits, said the cap was "aggravating child poverty". In an extraordinary intervention right-winger Ms Braverman, who once said homelessness is a "lifestyle choice", said the policy is too much for her to stomach.
She blamed the two-child cap - introduced by austerity Chancellor George Osborne in 2017 - for pushing "more children into relative poverty" and forcing "more families to use food banks". Earlier this year Mr Sunak said he would keep the controversial limit if the Tories win the general election. Keir Starmer has also said he is not changing the policy in a move that caused massive Labour divisions last year.
Ms Braverman wrote in the Telegraph that many parents do not know about the limit when they have their third or fourth child, with single parent families accounting for half of households affected.
Ms Braverman wrote: "As a result the policy has pushed more children into relative poverty and forced more families to use food banks." She went on: "Over 400,000 families are affected and all the evidence suggests that it is not having the effect of increasing employment or alleviating poverty. Instead, it’s aggravating child poverty."
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The former frontbencher said low income families with a third or fourth child lose around £3,200 per year. Rishi Sunak has said he has no intention of getting rid of it, despite campaigners saying this would lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.
Paying tribute to the work of the late MP Frank Field, who rallied against the measure, she said: "Let's abolish the two child limit, eradicate child poverty for good and make Frank Field proud". Ms Braverman said the £2.5billion cost of lifting the cap could be found by getting more people into work and potentially bringing in means testing for pensioners.
The policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, limits the benefits that parents on Universal Credit are entitled to - costing families upwards of £3,200 a year. Analysis by the End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) earlier this year found 422,000 households which claim benefits lost out as a result of the cap. An estimated 1.5million kids - one in 10 children - live in a home affected by the policy, it found.
The ECPC found that single parents with very young children and families with at least one disabled child are among the worst hit. Last year Mr Starmer said Labour will not be changing the policy if it wins the election. That position is understood to be unchanged.
That is despite deputy leader Angela Rayner having described the cap as "obscene and inhumane". Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said last month: “With child poverty at a record high, the prime minister has now clearly decided that making kids poor is his political priority."
Campaign group the Children's Prosperity Plan called on Labour to reverse its position if the Tories refuse. It said: "The Prime Minister’s pledge to retain the two-child benefit cap underscores a continuation of a policy that unfairly limits crucial support for many families across the UK.
"This position, which could prevent 250,000 children from escaping poverty, highlights the urgent need for opposition parties, particularly Labour, to commit to abolishing this cap." It went on: "Political leaders must prioritise actions that put children first."
Katie Schmuecker, Principal Policy Adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: "Committing to keeping the two child limit is committing to pushing more children into poverty. Children shouldn’t be punished for having siblings and the two child limit is a driver of rising poverty rates for larger families."