Gordon Brown has urged for the complete removal of the two-child benefit restriction, increasing pressure on Keir Starmer’s administration to take action. The former Labour Prime Minister criticized the high levels of child poverty in the UK as shameful and detrimental to the nation’s conscience during a significant speech. This call comes as Keir Starmer contemplates revising or eliminating the Conservative-backed policy that has been criticized for perpetuating child poverty by charities. The policy currently limits Child Tax Credits and Universal Credit to the first two children in a family.
There are indications that the government is exploring alternatives, such as implementing a new tapered rate or imposing a three-child limit, to mitigate the effects of the austerity measure. A child poverty review is anticipated to be released alongside Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Budget announcement on November 26.
Brown emphasized that the two-child rule is the primary factor behind the annual increase in child poverty numbers and expressed a strong desire to see it abolished entirely. He highlighted that without scrapping the rule, the government would struggle to meet its poverty reduction goals by the end of the parliamentary term and fail to achieve the new target for school readiness among children under five.
The former Prime Minister also criticized George Osborne, the austerity Chancellor who introduced the policy, stating that its existence in legislation for nearly a decade is a blight on the House of Commons. He debunked the notion propagated by Osborne that the policy was necessary to prevent taxpayers from supporting poor parents on benefits who were having children solely for financial gain.
Brown commended the efforts of Angela Rayner, the former Deputy Prime Minister, for her work and remarked on the alarming statistic that approximately 4.5 million children are presently living in poverty, the highest figure in six decades. He highlighted the importance of organizations like the Child Poverty Action Group in addressing societal injustices and inequalities.
Homelessness minister Alison McGovern, speaking at the event, hinted at forthcoming government strategies to enhance family incomes to alleviate the financial burdens associated with poverty. She acknowledged that child poverty hinders families from making progress in life and emphasized the need to address the root causes of this issue.
The government, through a spokesperson, reiterated its commitment to addressing the structural and underlying factors contributing to child poverty in its upcoming strategy.