SNP urge UK Labour rethink over reports scrapping two child cap ‘dead'

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

The UK-wide policy prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for more than two children, with a few exemptions.
Senior Labour figures have also reportedly warned that tax hikes are on the horizon after the benefits climbdown.
'My assessment is that is now dead in the water,' a No 10 source told The Sunday Times.
A No 11 source added: 'MPs will need to acknowledge that there is a financial cost to not approving the welfare changes, whether that's tax rises or not scrapping the two-child benefit cap. They need to understand the trade-offs.'
The Scottish government has already said it will effectively scrap the two-child benefits for those north of the border from March next year.
Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the move would help keep 20,000 children out of relative poverty.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said he will "constructively and in good faith" with the Scottish Government "if they are serious" about lifting the two-child benefit cap.
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Commenting on the recent reports, SNP Deputy Westminster Leader Pete Wishart MP said:
"Keir Starmer must not punish children for his disastrous mistakes over the Labour Party's cuts to disabled people.
"It is utterly shameful that as a direct result of Labour Party austerity cuts child poverty is rising to record levels in the UK - and the Prime Minister is failing to lift a finger to tackle it.
"Scrapping the two child benefit cap is the absolute bare minimum - and it should have been done on the Labour government's first day in power.
"It's pathetic that senior Labour Party figures now want to keep this punitive welfare cut just to show rebel MPs who's in charge. Saving Keir Starmer embarrassment is not more important than tackling child poverty.
"Around 2.3million families are living in poverty because the Labour Party is refusing to match SNP action.
"Instead of dragging his feet on abolishing the two child cap, Keir Starmer should be making progress on matching the SNP's Scottish Child Payment UK-wide, which is the kind of bold measure needed to really make a dent in child poverty.
"Thanks to SNP action, Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty is falling. Unless Keir Starmer urgently follow's Scotland's lead, his lasting legacy will be pushing millions of children into destitution."
Asked about the cap this morning, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said 'future spending decisions have been made harder' by the U-turn on Sir Keir's welfare cuts.
Ms Phillipson told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that ministers are "looking at every lever and we'll continue to look at every lever to lift children out of poverty".
She added: "The decisions that have been taken in the last week do make decisions, future decisions harder.
"But all of that said, we will look at this collectively in terms of all of the ways that we can lift children out of poverty."
On Thursday, the Prime Minister was asked whether he still wanted to scrap the two-child cap.
He responded: 'The last Labour government drove down child poverty and it's one of the proudest things that we did.
'Sadly, the last government allowed child poverty to go back up again.
'I'm determined that this government will drive it down, just as the last Labour government did.
'We've got a strategy and a task force working on this and will lay out the details of that. I personally don't think there's a silver bullet that if you do this one thing, it will deal with child poverty.'
The UK Government's Child Poverty Taskforce was due to report in the spring, however, it has now been delayed until the autumn.