Nearly 1.7 Million UK Children Affected by Two-Child Benefit Cap

New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that nearly 1.7 million children in the UK live in households affected by the two-child benefit limit, a policy introduced in 2017 that restricts certain benefits to families with more than two children. The number of children impacted has increased by over 37,000 in the past year, with nearly half a million families now affected, including 59% of households where at least one adult is working. Charities such as Save the Children UK and the Child Poverty Action Group have condemned the policy as "devastating," "shameful," and "brutal," highlighting that it has pushed hundreds of thousands of children into poverty and worsened conditions for those already struggling. Campaigners argue that the policy disproportionately affects single-parent households and disabled families and that scrapping it would immediately lift an estimated 350,000 children out of poverty. Despite calls for the Labour government to abolish the cap in its upcoming child poverty strategy, financial pressures following recent welfare reform rollbacks have raised doubts about the policy's future. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has pledged to scrap the cap ahead of next year's election, contrasting with the Labour government's reluctance to act promptly on the issue.