North East leaders hail scrapping of two-child benefit cap

The move, announced in today’s Budget, is expected to reduce child poverty by 70,000 here, and 450,000 nationally.

Last year this paper asked senior politicians to commit to reducing child poverty as part of The Northern Echo manifesto, which was backed by then shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said the government’s decision would “change the lives of nearly 50,000 children” in her area alone.

“Today is a major victory in our fight to end child poverty in the North East,” she said.

North East Mayor, Kim McGuinness (Image: Michael sreenan)

“We fought for the end of the cruel two-child benefit cap that pushed families into poverty and stifled opportunity. Today, the Chancellor lifted that cap.

“Every child deserves the best possible start in life.”

Ms McGuinness, whose area covers County Durham, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, said the move would make her £30m child poverty action plan “even more impactful”.

The cap, introduced in 2017, restricted Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit payments to the first two children in most households.

Mary Kelly Foy, MP for City of Durham (Image: PARLIAMENT)

Since then, it has become one of the most controversial welfare policies, with MPs, charities, and campaigners repeatedly urging ministers to abolish it.

City of Durham MP, Mary Kelly Foy, said: “After years of campaigning, the cruel two-child benefit cap will be lifted.

“This is the quickest way to lift thousands of children out of poverty and, given the level of child poverty across the North East, it can’t come soon enough.”

Darlington MP, Lola McEvoy, also welcomed the move.

Darlington MP, Lola McEvoy (Image: PARLIAMENT)

She said: “Around 2,400 children in our town will benefit from the removal of this cap and be lifted out of child poverty.

“Growing up in poverty lowers your life chances of success, and this policy was always designed to punish children for cheap political points.

“That’s not who I am. I want every child in our town to have better opportunities than they did when I was elected.

“So I’m relieved, as their parents will be, to know their family finances will be improved, as will the chances of their children living a life that we all would want for them.”

Bishop Auckland MP, Sam Rushworth, also backed the Budget, calling it ‘ investment in public services and improving living standards under Labour’.

He added: “The budget will lift 70,000 children in the North East out of poverty by ending the two-child cap, alongside measures such as ensuring 30 hours free childcare in early years; setting up free breakfast clubs in every school; extending free school meals to more children; extending the £150 Warm Homes Discount to more households; knocking £150 off average household energy bills for everyone, subsidising bus fares and freezing rail fares and fuel duty; and banning ticket-touting so tickets cannot be sold above face value.”

Middlesbrough & Thornaby East MP Andy McDonald (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough and Thornaby East MP Andy McDonald called the move “the most immediate, cost-effective step to cut child poverty,” but said the budget “falls short of the transformation people deserve”.

Mr McDonald called for “fair taxation, proper public-sector pay, and real investment in services”, or warned that “Britain’s renewal will be stalled”.

Two-child benefit cap (Image: Danny Lawson/PA WIRE)

Analysis by the North East Child Poverty Commission (NECPC) noted that as of April, around 70,000 children in the region were affected. They said the figure was rising each year as more babies were born into families excluded from support.

Beth Farhat, Chair of NECPC, welcomed the announcement as a “vital step in the right direction” and said it would immediately improve living standards for thousands of families.

Beth Farhat, Chair of NECPC (Image: NECPC)

“Scrapping the cruel two-child limit, in full and from next April, truly is a vital step in the right direction in bringing down the numbers of children held back by poverty both here in the North East and across the country,” she said.

She added that ending the cap would “deliver a profound boost to the living standards and opportunities of babies, children and young people”, lifting tens of thousands of families out of hardship and easing the pressure on councils, public services and charities “working tirelessly to support families, including growing numbers who are in work”.

The NECPC has been one of the region’s most vocal campaigners, backing parliamentary attempts to abolish the policy.

The Northern Echo called on senior politicians to commit to reducing child poverty and outline how it would do so as part of our own manifesto before last year’s election.

Sir Keir Starmer backed our manifesto, saying the next Labour government planned to “deliver it from day one.”

Rachel Reeves told MPs she would not “preside over a status quo that punishes children for the circumstances of their birth”.

She confirmed the decision was fully funded through reforms to gambling taxes, action on welfare fraud and tackling tax avoidance.

The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates the change will reduce child poverty by 450,000 by the end of the Parliament, at a cost of £3 billion.