Last week, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Amber Rudd MP, announced plans to cancel the ‘two-child limit’ benefits cap for families with three or more children born before April 2017. This U-turn comes after a cross party campaign by MPs, the Church of England and the Child Poverty Action Group. Over 100 MP’s signed a letter facilitated by Rushanara Ali MP in October, urging PM Theresa May, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond MP and the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Esther McVey MP, to reconsider the two-child limit policy.
Commenting on the change, the Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Rushanara Ali, said:
“I welcome Amber Rudd MP’s decision to partially rollback the ‘two-child limit’ policy. Whilst it is encouraging that the ‘two-child limit’ will not be retrospectively applied to families who made the choice to have their children before the policy came into effect, families with three or more children born after 6th April 2017 will continue to suffer. We cannot have an inconsistent welfare policy that punishes certain children because of the date of their birth. We must continue to pressure Amber Rudd MP to consider the wider problems of the ‘two-child limit’ and scrap this cruel policy altogether.”
You can read the full letter here.
You can read more about the policy reversal here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46827301