DWP two-child benefit cap mapped as it hits record 450,000 UK households

Pressure is mounting on the new Labour government to abolish the two-child benefit cap on Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit as new figures showed 1.6 million children across the UK are affected. Below we have mapped how many households in every area are impacted by the policy, which limits additional benefit top-ups to the first two children unless exceptional circumstances apply.

A total of 1.6 million children were living in households impacted by the two-child cap in the year to April, up by 100,000 on the year before. Most of those children (1.3 million) were in a Universal Credit household, while 270,000 were in a Child Tax Credit household. Of these, 52 per cent of children were in households with three children, 29 per cent in households with four children, and 19 per cent in households with five or more children.

The cap was introduced by the Conservative Government in 2017, applying to all children born after April 6 that year. The latest figures show it is affecting a record high of 450,000 households across the UK in the year to April 2024, including thousands in Birmingham and the Black Country. The majority of households (270,000) are in work, with 180,000 being out-of-work households.

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Almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of households in receipt of Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit have seen their benefit entitlement reduced by the policy. You can see the number and proportion of affected households in your area by using our interactive map below.

Vale of White Horse has the highest proportion of households in the country who are hit by the two-child limit. A total of 990 households in the area claim either Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit. Some 690 of those (69 per cent) are impacted by the cap. Hackney, Salford and Stirling jointly have the next highest ratios at 67 per cent each.

Joseph Howes, Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition and CEO of Buttle UK said: "The two-child limit just has to go. If the aim is to reduce child poverty, there is no way for the new Labour government to keep this policy in place when the evidence shows that the number of children impacted is increasing year on year. Children living in poverty cannot wait any longer – this shameful policy must be scrapped, the time for action is now."

Last month, before becoming Prime Minister, Sir Keir said he would scrap the two-child limit "in an ideal world" but added that "we haven't got the resources to do it at the moment." New Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall called the child poverty situation "a stain on our society" and pledged to hold "critical meetings" with charities and experts about a strategy to tackle it.

Sir Keir, speaking at the party's manifesto launch last month, said Labour will take "millions of children out of poverty" with a "strong plan" for housing, education, health and good jobs. But campaigners criticised the absence of a pledge to scrap the cap and said any plan to reduce child poverty "won’t get off the ground" until this happens.

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 2024/2025, but that such costs are "low compared to the harm that the policy causes."

In its briefing in January, it said scrapping the two-child limit "would be one of the most efficient ways to drive down child poverty rates", estimating that if abolished at that point, 490,000 children would have been lifted out of poverty. After the latest figures, it said almost two in five large families in the UK are now affected, and things will get worse if it remains in place.

Lalitha Try, an economist at the foundation, said there is little evidence the policy has achieved its aims of boosting employment and reducing the number of children families have, but that there is “clear evidence of the financial losses that affected families are facing, and rising rates of poverty”.

She added: "Unless the policy is abolished, the majority of children in large families will fall below the poverty line by the end of the parliament. Any new child poverty strategy should find the funds to remove it."

Action for Children said the figures "confirm the relentless expansion of this cruel policy, which creates and entrenches child poverty", while Save the Children described the statistics as "an outrage" showing how "more and more children will suffer every year just because they have siblings."

The Liberal Democrats described the policy, which came in under the Conservatives, as "cruel and counterproductive" and vowed to keep campaigning to scrap it.

The figures come as the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said its survey of 560 families affected by the policy shows "the deep suffering and deprivation it's causing”.

Almost all of them (93 per cent) said the policy had affected their ability to pay for food, while 82 per cent said it meant they struggled to cover gas or electricity bills. Almost half (45 per cent) of respondents said they struggled to pay their rent or mortgage because of the policy while (46 per cent) described struggling to manage childcare costs.

CPAG has called on the Prime Minister to "send a clear signal" in next week's King's Speech that the two-child limit will be abolished this year. CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: "The PM came to office pledging a bold, ambitious child poverty-reduction plan and there's no way to deliver on that promise without scrapping the two-child limit, and fast."

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