Child poverty strategy will 'fizzle not fly' unless two-child limit goes

• Call for binding targets

Child Poverty Action Group is warning that the government’s child poverty strategy will most likely fail to reduce child poverty unless it scraps the two-child limit and has binding targets.

In a research report published and launched at an event with the Minister for Employment Alison McGovern today, the charity says that after years of social security cuts, any credible strategy must help struggling families get back on their feet by realigning social security support with the needs of children.  Most urgently, that means scrapping the two-child limit and the benefit cap. Every single day, the two-child limit pulls another 109 children into poverty. 

The research draws on interviews with 40 policy experts, including some with experience of developing or delivering child poverty strategies in various contexts, such as under New Labour, in the devolved nations and internationally. 

Launching the research today, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said: 

'The experts on poverty are clear – without abolition of the two-child limit and statutory poverty-reduction targets, the government’s child poverty strategy will fizzle not fly.  The fundamental test of this strategy will be whether it lifts children out of poverty at scale and at pace. The country can’t afford to leave any more children behind.'

In implementing the strategy, the government should: 

• Publicly set a target to halve child poverty within ten years and eradicate child poverty within twenty years. (‘Eradication’ is the point where less than 10% of children live in a household with an income below 60% of the median).
• Set up a reporting framework at different levels of government, including reporting to Parliament, and establish an independent monitoring body with the statutory duty to advise the government on child poverty-reduction.
• Publish annual progress reports on government action on child poverty, aligned with budgetary cycles and demonstrating how government spending decisions are expected to impact child poverty.
• Strategic authorities in England (and local authorities, until they become part of a strategic authority) should be required to produce child poverty plans for their areas and be provided with the resource to deliver them. 

Notes to editors: 

To help inform the development of the Government’s child poverty strategy, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), with support from Save the Children, conducted research on how to deliver an effective child poverty strategy, funded by Impact on Urban Health. Between August and October 2024, we conducted interviews with 40 practitioners with a range of expertise. Twenty of our interviewees have experience of developing or delivering child poverty strategies in various contexts, including under New Labour, in the devolved nations and internationally. The other 20 interviewees are subject experts who were asked about their policy priorities for inclusion in a strategy.  The report is available here. 

The two-child limit denies the child allowances in universal credit and tax credits to third or subsequent children born after April 2017.  The benefit cap limits the total amount of benefit a household can receive regardless of any children in the household.

CPAG media contact: Jane Ahrends 07816 909302