Charities and Experts Condemn the Labour’s Support of Tory Two-Child Cap

Independence is the only way to deliver real change and a fair society.

A coalition of leading anti-poverty charities have said that the two-child limit ‘robs children of the basic joys of childhood’. Leading parents to take out loans to buy basic items, like school uniforms, and forcing children give up on social activities because their parents cannot afford the costs associated.

The UK government’s own figures have revealed that a frightening 409,600 households have already been deprived of crucial income due to the Tories’ draconian policies, sending thousands of families below the poverty line.

Research by anti-poverty charities suggests that scrapping the two-child limit remains one of the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. Scrapping the policy alone would help to lift 250,000 children across the UK out of the poverty.

Labour’s decision to U-turn on the abolition of the two-child benefit cap and rape clause has been widely criticised by many organisations, including:

• Aberlour Children’s Charity – The charity, who tackle child poverty and discrimination, were left “dismayed” at the decision.
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation – Chris Birt, Associate Director at the JRF, has said the policy is a “stigmatising attack on families”.
• Poverty Alliance – Peter Kelly, Director of Poverty Alliance, has said the two-child cap is the “worst of the welfare ‘reforms’ of the last 13 years” and that “any politician that claims to care about poverty, about increasing food banks use, about the well-being of kids needs to commit to scrap this terrible policy”.
• Action for Children Policy and Campaign – The charity, who speak up for the most vulnerable in society, have said that “any government serious about tackling child poverty will eventually have to confront the cruel reality of the two-child benefit cap”.
• New Economic Foundation – Head of Social Policy at the NEF, Tom Pollard, has warned that “keeping this policy in place is irreconcilable with a serious commitment to tackle child poverty”.
• Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland – The charity, in a joint call with other leading anti-poverty charities – said that the two-child cap was ‘one of the most brutal policies of our times’ that affects over 80 000 children in Scotland alone, pushing up to 15 000 into poverty.

In a letter to Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar today, Stephen Flynn MP described the decision as “utterly shameful” and challenged the Labour Party to U-turn immediately.

The SNP Westminster Leader also challenged Starmer and Sarwar to “come clean” on whether the Labour Party will also keep other cruel Tory policies, including the wider benefit cap, the £20 a week cut to Universal Credit, the bedroom tax and the local housing allowance freeze.

While the SNP invests to lift people out of poverty, Westminster control drags us backwards

After thirteen years of brutal Tory austerity and a hard Brexit that Scotland never voted for, people and communities are facing real hardship.

Now, they are seeing that a Labour government is only interested in supporting and entrenching cruel Tory policies, not abolishing them – this is the price of Westminster control.

Unlike the increasingly right-wing and pro-Brexit Labour, the SNP is absolutely clear: we oppose this policy in every form, and will continue to demand its abolition.

While the UK is suffering the worst levels of poverty and inequality out of neighbouring countries, small independent nations like Ireland, Belgium or Denmark perform significantly better.

With the full powers of an independent country we can rid Scotland of these callous policies once and for all – and begin to build a fairer, more prosperous country. Join us today and help make it happen.