Charities urge UK PM to scrap two-child benefit cap amid rising child poverty

Charities and advocacy groups have warned that child poverty in the UK will reach its highest level on record by the end of this parliament unless the government scraps the two-child benefit cap, a policy restricting financial support to the first two children in most families. Letters from organizations such as Barnardo’s, Save the Children UK, Citizens Advice, and the Child Poverty Action Group urge Prime Minister Keir Starmer to show leadership and eliminate the cap, which they argue is the single most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. They estimate that removing the cap would lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty and prevent the number of children in poverty from rising from 4.5 million to 4.8 million by 2029. Official data show the cap has driven poverty rates in larger families sharply higher, particularly in Scotland, where over 40% of children in households with three or more kids now live in poverty. Despite mounting pressure, government sources indicate there are currently no plans to abolish the cap, citing its popularity with key voters and framing it as a matter of fairness. The Scottish Government, however, has pledged to mitigate the policy's impact from next year.