The government is actively considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the education secretary has confirmed, stating the measure is “on the table.”
Bridget Phillipson said that a government taskforce, which launched last July, is examining “every lever” to lift children out of poverty.
Phillipson serves as co-chair of the child poverty taskforce alongside Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary.
The two-child limit, a policy introduced under a Conservative government in 2017, prevents parents from claiming Universal Credit for a third or any subsequent child. Phillipson appeared to concede on Tuesday morning that the cap has not impacted decisions around family size and rather “all it has done has pushed more children into poverty”.
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Pressed on whether the government intended to abolish the cap, Phillipson told Times Radio: “It’s on the table — no measures are off the table. We’ve always been clear about that, and of course, social security is an important element of how we tackle child poverty…
“There are lots of ways that the child poverty taskforce is considering how we can lift children out of poverty. But of course, we can’t ignore the impact of social security changes.”
The comments are the strongest indication yet that the Labour government is preparing to scrap the policy.
Phillipson added: “[These are] social security changes that were introduced by the Conservatives that a Labour government would not have introduced in the first place. But it’s tough, it’s challenging.
“Everybody knows that the public finances have been left in a terrible mess, but I can give you my absolute assurance that this Labour government is determined to bring down the numbers of children growing up in poverty, because we know the devastating impact it has, not just for those children and families, but actually for all of us as a country.”
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The education secretary added that a decision on the two-child cap would come at a fiscal event.
Speaking later to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Phillipson recognised reports that the government’s new child strategy will be published in the autumn, later than initially anticipated.
“The reason for that is that we want to get it right”, she said, adding: “This is a complex area that involves questions of social security, but also other levers that we as a government and others can pull to bring down the numbers of children growing up in poverty.”
Phillipson commented: “It’s why I’m in politics, it’s what this Labour government is all about — we will make different decisions to support children and families [than the Conservative Party]. We already have done.
“It’s why we I’ve been involved in expanding childcare massively to support working families. It’s why we’re rolling out new free breakfast clubs in our primary schools, why we’re going to cut the cost of school uniforms and increase the minimum wage to put more money back into parents’ pockets.
“That is the moral purpose of this Labour government. We are determined to bring down the numbers of children growing up in poverty.”
Phillipson went on to repeat that scrapping the two-child limit is “on the table” and that the move is being considered by the child poverty taskforce she co-chairs.
The education secretary insisted that the two-child benefit cap was not a change “that a Labour government would ever have introduced”. But she pointed to the state of the public finances, commenting: “Seeking to unwind that and to change the social security system is not easy, and it costs a lot of money, and we’ve got to get this right.”
Phillipson added: “We want to make this change happen, and it will be the moral mission of this Labour government to ensure that fewer children grow up in poverty, and that where you’re from does not determine everything that you can go on to achieve in life, because for too many children right now, including in Sunderland, where I’m speaking to you today, background is destiny — where you’re from determines what you go on to achieve.
“That has got to come to an end, and we will break that link.”
The education secretary cited conversations she has had with constituents who made “perfectly reasonable and rational decisions to have a number of children, to have three children.”
She said: “In the case of one constituent I met, they lost their partner, who died unexpectedly, they then find themselves unable to access the full support that they had anticipated for their whole family, even when they made what was a perfectly reasonable choice around family size.
“The changes around the social security system that the Conservatives introduced actually haven’t had an impact on the decisions that people are making around family size. All it has done has pushed more children into poverty.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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