UK Children’s Commissioner Presses Labour to Scrap Two-Child Benefit Cap

England’s Children’s Commissioner has warned that some young people are enduring “almost-Dickensian” hardship, citing homes plagued by rats, mould and intermittent water supplies in a report released this week. Dame Rachel de Souza said abolishing the two-child limit on Universal Credit and child tax credit is the most effective single step ministers could take, estimating that the move would lift about 500,000 children out of poverty immediately. Her recommendations also include free bus travel for school-age children, a “triple lock” to uprate child-related benefits and tighter limits on the use of temporary accommodation. The report lands against a backdrop of record deprivation: official figures show 4.45 million children were living in poverty in the UK in the year to March 2024. Independent estimates put the annual cost of ending the two-child limit at £2.6-£3.5 billion by the end of the current Parliament. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the Labour government’s “moral mission” is to ensure a child’s background does not dictate their future, but added that last week’s U-turn on wider welfare reforms had made future spending decisions “harder.” She declined to confirm whether the two-child cap will be scrapped, saying the government will examine “every lever” before outlining its child-poverty strategy in the autumn.