Families have hope for the first time this budget. Anything other than bold moves will let them down

The two-child limit on benefits policy was introduced by David Cameron and George Osborne in 2017. It has been a disaster for children and their families.

The rule means that families affected by it, receive around £3,500 per year for each of their first two children through the child element of universal credit and nothing for their third or subsequent children. It must be scrapped in full at the budget – without compromise.

The cap leaves almost 1.7 million children living in almost half a million families trapped in poverty. It is the reason why 109 children each day are born into poverty.

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As we head towards the budget on 26 November and the release of the UK government’s Child Poverty Strategy, it’s evident this is the most important moment in a decade for the families we work with. They are waiting to see if this government will boldly back children, or retreat from making the investment needed to drive down punishing rates of child poverty. 

This week I was in touch with Tasha. She has four children and caught by the rule. She works as a clearer. Her husband works full time in construction. They are struggling to make ends meet. Tasha has been vocal in campaigning to get the two-child limit overturned. She isn’t sure where things are headed with myriad press stories emerging in recent weeks about the government pulling back from axing the policy in full and considering half-way house suggestions to keep costs down.

“Some days I feel like things will improve regarding the budget, other days I feel like I want to scream and shout at them. It’s hard to know what to do but I’ll keep fighting until we get a result, we are all happy with,” she said.

Tasha isn’t a professional advocacy worker; she is a mum who calls out injustice when she sees it. She has lived under this rule since her youngest was born five years ago. For her children, and others, she hopes the UK government will make the right decision at the budget and treat each child fairly, to make sure universal credit’s child payment awards the same amount to each child, no matter their birth order. 

The policy has had no impact on raising employment or reducing family sizes, but it has had a huge negative impact on children’s lives. It has been the main driving force behind rising child poverty over the last eight years, with half of all children with two or more siblings now growing up in poverty in this country.   

In their 2024 election-winning manifesto, the Labour Party promised to “develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty” and “take initial steps to confront poverty”. The evidence is clear: the only way to do that is by scrapping the two-child limit to benefits in full.

Alongside scrapping the two-child limit, Save the Children has been calling for the removal of the benefit cap. Unlike the two-child limit which restricts the child element of universal credit to the first two children, the benefit cap is an overall limit on the amount of benefits a household can receive.

Many families who would benefit from the removal of the two-child limit will see no significant change in their families’ finances unless the benefit cap is removed. This is especially the case for those facing high rents. The benefit cap hits families with children: 82% of impacted households include at least one child, slashing some family’s finances by over £150 a week.

Over one third of all impacted households are single parents with children aged three and under. It is no surprise that they face such unequal impacts from the cap. After all, single parents with young children face high employment barriers yet the policy requires them to earn just as much as a couple combined to avoid the cap. 

As the UK government runs towards the finishing line of the Budget, and the release of the long-awaited child poverty strategy, we would urge them to prioritise children, and do it boldly, with passion and pride.  This is why political leaders stand for election: to look at the evidence and to do the right thing for families that are struggling the most.

Doing the right thing would mean keeping manifesto promises and building on their legacy as a party that strives to give children a brighter future. Parliamentary terms pass in a flash. This is the time for the UK Government to do the right thing and end the two-child limit experiment and the benefit cap by scrapping these policies in full.

Moazzam Malik is CEO of Save the Children UK .

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