Gordon Brown to issue warning on ‘shameful epidemic’ of child poverty in Britain
Gordon Brown is set to issue a stark warning that child poverty represents both the UK’s most significant social divide and its greatest long-term economic threat.
The former Labor leader is also expected to intensify his calls for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to increase taxes on gambling companies to remove the two-child allowance limit.
Mr Brown, who has repeatedly spoken out on the issue of child poverty, will brand the issue a “shameful epidemic” in his speech to mark the 60th anniversary of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPag) on Thursday.
Speaking at an event in London, he is expected to say: “What has become a UK-wide child poverty emergency is not only the biggest cause of social division in our country, but – through failure to equip young people for future jobs – it is also the biggest threat to our long-term economic future.”
The latest official statistics show that by March 2024, after housing costs, there were estimated to be 4.45 million children in UK households on relatively low incomes; this was the highest figure since comparable records for the UK began in 2002/03.
An earlier report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), backed by Mr Brown, suggested reforms to gambling taxes could generate the £3.2bn needed to remove both the two-child limit and the benefit cap.
IPPR said repealing the policies could lift half a million children out of poverty and “reverse years of growing hardship for low-income families.”
The poll, conducted for campaign group 38 Degrees, found that almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of people support increasing taxes on gambling companies if the money is used to reduce child poverty, while 14 per cent oppose such a proposal.
Mr Brown is expected to call for “a new child compassion coalition that will create a chain of hope for our nation’s children”.
He added: “This is urgently needed to lift half a million children out of poverty from April next year and meaningfully tackle Britain’s shameful child poverty epidemic.”
Mr Brown is expected to call for a permanent UK-wide anti-poverty alliance of charities, foundations, businesses and faith groups to work with governments in the four countries to tackle rising child poverty.
It has been reported that the Chancellor will make changes to the two-child benefit limit in his budget.
In September, Ms Reeves said she was “committed to lifting children out of poverty”, noting that the child poverty taskforce would publish its strategy this autumn (delayed from spring) and said she would “respond in the Budget”.
The same month, when asked about a report that he would make a direct statement regarding the limit in his November statement, he did not deny such a move.
A separate policy from the benefit cap, the two-child limit or cap, was first announced by the Conservatives in 2015 and came into force in 2017.
It limits child tax credit and universal credit (UC) to the first two children in most households.
Campaigners claim that 109 children across the UK are being pushed into poverty every day as a result of this policy.
The Treasury is reportedly looking at different options, including whether additional benefits would be limited to three or four children, or whether there would be a reduction rate that would mean parents would receive maximum benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.
The Solution Foundation think tank has previously estimated that easing the two-child limit so families can receive support for the first three children they have would cost £2.4bn in 2029/30 and lift 280,000 children out of poverty.
The organization said that completely removing the two-child limit would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty and that none of the previously mentioned options would be an “acceptable long-term solution”.
Predictions about scrapping the policy vary widely; The Resolution Foundation estimates costs of around £3.5bn by the end of this Parliament (2029/30), while Cpag and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have lower calculations of around £3bn by then.
Cpag chief executive Alison Garnham said: “With child poverty at record highs, we need decisive government action more than ever and the first step must be to abolish the two-child limit altogether.
“Half measures and concessions will not shift the dial. This policy needs to be abolished completely, otherwise a generation of children will grow up without opportunities.”
A government spokesman said its strategy would determine “how to tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty”.
They added: “We’re investing £500 million in children’s development with the launch of Best Start Family Centres, extending free school meals and ensuring the poorest don’t go hungry over the holidays through a new £1 billion crisis support package.”
Commissioned by 38 Degrees, Survation surveyed more than 8,000 British adults in August and September.
