MPs resoundingly vote to scrap two-child benefit cap
Legislation to abolish the controversial two-child limit has passed its first parliamentary stage, bringing it a step closer to repealing the policy.
The policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, limits child tax credit and Universal Credit (UC) to the first two children.
During a House of Commons debate, this was branded a political application of the distinction between “deserving and undeserving poor”.
MPs overwhelmingly supported scrapping the policy and voted 458 to 104 (a majority of 354) to pass the Universal Credit (Removal of the Two-Child Limit) Bill at its second reading.
Campaigners say the cap is pushing 109 children into poverty every day across the UK.
If the change becomes law, it will allow families to receive the child element of UC for all their children, regardless of family size.
The bill faces further scrutiny from MPs and colleagues before it becomes law. However, the government has stated that it intends to lift the two-child limit from April.
Work and Pensions Minister Pat McFadden said the policy had seen children used as pawns for almost a decade.
He told MPs: “This (policy) was never really about welfare reform, it wasn’t even about saving money.
“No, this was always first and foremost a political exercise, an attempt to trap opponents, with children used as pawns in the exercise.
“This was all about the politics of splitting the lines between the so-called shirkers and the strivers, the old division between the deserving and undeserving poor.”
Labor has faced calls to scrap the policy since coming to power in the summer of 2024 but has cited spending controls as a reason for not being able to abandon the policy immediately; This shows that there will be no change without economic growth.
Seven Labor MPs were suspended by the party after supporting an SNP motion to scrap the welfare measure in a vote in Parliament that year.
Following repeated calls from charities, campaigners and many of the party’s MPs, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in last year’s autumn budget that the Government would move to scrap the policy from April.
The Conservatives have previously said they would reintroduce the policy if they were returned to power, along with shadow work and pensions minister Helen. He tells the House of Commons that many families “do the maths” on whether they should have more children.
He said: “Why should people on benefits avoid the difficult choices everyone else faces?”
His party colleague, Conservative former deputy prime minister Sir Oliver Dowden, echoed this, arguing that there was a “principle” behind the policy: “Will people take responsibility for their own actions?”
He added: “Because there are thousands, millions of people who choose not to have any more children because they want to take responsibility for their lives and they don’t want the government to take responsibility.
“And now with this change the Government is saying to these people: not only will the state bear the responsibility, you as an individual will have to pay for it through higher taxes.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage previously said his party would scrap the policy but later clarified it would only apply to families where both parents are British and work full-time. Last month he said his party’s MPs would vote against lifting the border.
Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman who backed the Government Bill, said his party had “being against the two-child limit in its DNA” as he backed the Government’s plans to scrap what he called the “Dickensian policy of judging families”.
Former Tory minister Sir Desmond Swayne suggested canceling the policy was more about saving Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, but Mr McFadden said Labor’s first job when the party took office was to “stabilise the economy after the irresponsibility and chaos of the Conservative years”.
He said Ms Reeves, who sat behind him during the debate, had set out how the policy could be repealed “can only be done now and can only be funded through a combination of savings from fraud and errors in the benefits system, changes to the Motability scheme and reform of online gambling taxation”.
Nearly 400,000 fewer children will be living in poverty this April than 12 months ago as a result of the change, according to analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the move would cost £3bn a year by 2029/30.
The government said removing the two-child limit, along with other measures in its wider strategy to tackle child poverty, would lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030, hailing it as the biggest reduction in a single parliament since records began.
