Latest news with #childpoverty
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer tells MPs he wants to cut child poverty before next election
Keir Starmer said he wants to reduce child poverty by the end of the parliament, as the prime minister comes under mounting pressure to end the two-child benefit cap. The prime minister told MPs on Monday it was his aim to cut the number of children living in poverty by the time of the next election, going further than the manifesto pledge his party made before last year's election. Starmer's target will renew focus on ending the two-child cap, which poverty campaigners say is the most efficient way to take children out of poverty but would cost an estimated £3.6bn a year. Speaking to members of parliament's liaison committee, the prime minister said: 'We've set up a designated taskforce to look specifically to child poverty, to devise our strategy, and I have oversight of that, so that everybody can see it's a No 10/prime minister priority in what we're doing.' Asked by Meg Hillier, the chair of the Treasury select committee, whether it was his aim to cut child poverty this parliament, he replied: 'Yes. The last Labour government got child poverty down, and I want to get child poverty down.' His comments go further than the 2024 party manifesto, which promised to 'develop an ambitious strategy to reduce poverty'. But the government remains unclear on how it intends to meet the prime minister's target, with the results of the child poverty taskforce expected later this year. Starmer has previously said he wants to end the cap 'when fiscal conditions allow' but ministers said this has been made harder recently by the government's decision to abandon planned cuts to disability benefits in the face of a Labour rebellion. Child poverty rates have been rising for most of the last decade, and nearly a third of children now live in poverty, according to campaign groups. Ending the two-child cap, which was imposed by the Conservatives in 2017, would be a costly measure but one that experts say would have the most direct impact on poverty rates per pound spent. The Child Poverty Action Group says scrapping it would take 350,000 children out of poverty overnight – reducing the rate by seven percentage points. Starmer came under heavy criticism during Monday's hearing with the chairs of all 32 Commons select committees – even from his Labour colleagues over the government's record on poverty and living standards. Debbie Abrahams, the chair of the work and pensions select committee, said she had been 'ashamed' by the initial proposals in the government's welfare bill, against which she helped lead the rebellion. 'This was poor legislation,' she said. 'It was designed to save money for the Treasury by cutting support to sick and disabled people. It was so far removed from Labour values of fairness and social justice, let alone compassion and common decency. I have to say I felt ashamed.' Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Liam Byrne, the chair of the business select committee, warned that government policies were helping make the bottom 40% of households worse off. 'The bottom 40% of households, they're not going to be better off in three years' time,' he said. 'They're actually going to be £1,200 a year worse off.' Byrne urged Starmer to commit to raising capital gains tax to give lower-paid people a tax cut – something the prime minister declined to rule out. Starmer did however say he wanted to sign further deals with the EU following on from the government's recent 'reset', specifically on cooperation over medicines and making it easier for touring musicians and other artists to travel around the continent. 'They're not the only areas, but these are common sense changes that we could make to our arrangements with the EU, which have, in my view, very little to do with the vote in 2016.' The prime minister added that he had been 'quite uncomfortable' about the Afghanistan superinjunction, which hid a major data breach and secret relocation scheme. The prime minister called the scheme and the superinjunction a 'shocking inheritance' from the previous government, even though his ministers extended the legal tool twice and only lifted it after a year in power.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Column: Somerset's child poverty crisis continues to worsen
Child poverty is at an undoubted high across the UK, writes Rowan Russell. A record 4.5m children were living in poverty in the UK in the year to April 2024 and an extra 100,000 children were living below the breadline. These national statistics are reflected locally in Somerset, with an estimate of 14,300 children across the county living in extremely low-income households. These already staggering statistics are likely to be even higher as housing costs are not taken into account when calculating local figures, unlike the broader national ones, where the relative poverty is looked at after housing costs, as well as the local statistics only counting children aged up to 15 while the national ones record children up to 19 years old. The figures have been steadily rising over the past few years, from 2018 when around 12,150 children were recorded to be living in poverty - just 13.1 per cent - to now, where the percentage has increased to roughly 17 per cent - not even taking housing costs into account. However, in recent research done by the End Child Poverty Coalition in the South West, the figure was closer to 27 per cent when making the calculations after housing costs. Robert Wyatt, Action for Children's operational director in the South West, said: "No child in the South West should have to experience poverty. "These figures should demonstrate to the government just how important it is to quickly address this to prevent another generation of children from growing up in low-income families. "One in four children in the South West live in homes where daily essentials are a struggle – it's a national scandal, and we see the impact on children and families in our frontline services every day." The research also showed a strong correlation between the two-child benefit cap and children living in poverty in the South West. The two-child benefit cap was introduced by the Conservative government in 2017 and restricts the support that families with more than two children can receive. It is estimated that the two-child benefit cap affects around 2,425 children in Somerset alone. Although scrapping the cap would cost the government roughly an additional £3bn a year if fully implemented, it would provide 300,000 children nationwide with an escape from poverty. Mr Wyatt continued to say: "As a first step the government must scrap the two-child limit to benefit payments, a policy which continues to pull children into poverty every day." The policy does indeed result in children dropping into poverty on a daily basis. The End Child Poverty Coalition estimates that the limit pulls 109 children below the breadline every day across the country. Joseph Howes, CEO of Buttle UK and chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, said: "Scrapping the two-child limit is a crucial first step to address rising child poverty across the UK. "By doing this the government could also see a boost to local economies, targeting some of the most deprived areas of the country. "We don't want to see another year of families suffering as a result of the two-child limit. "The government must scrap this policy as part of their soon-to-be-published strategy to tackle child poverty." Children from low-income households across the country do, however, receive support through their schools. In Somerset, the Somerset Household Support Fund gives vital support to struggling families such as providing Free School Meal vouchers during school holidays for children, weekend activities and warm spaces for families, food and fuel provisions and more. Additionally, locally-targeted organisations such as Spark Somerset and Connect Somerset help to support low-income families in the area. Spark Somerset provides information on warm and welcoming places providing young people with a place to rely on during the winter months. Connect Somerset offers help services, including a 'Team around the School' model where professionals connect with and help support schools and families. Many more national support mechanisms are in place that can be accessed via school, such as Pupil Premium, which gives schools funding relevant to the number of pupils eligible for free school meals at the specific school, and the National Funding Formula which provides schools with the additional funding they might require to give extra support to disadvantaged pupils. On top of this, the government has just announced a new fund called the Better Futures Fund. This fund is designed to support over 200,000 children living in poverty. It will run for 10 years and will aim to bring together "government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors, and philanthropists to work together to give children a brighter future." It also aims to intervene with children and young people heading down a path to a life of crime, hoping to give career opportunities and a promise of a safer future. This intervention will lead to many mental health support and social care organisations and indeed schools to be relieved of a lot of stress. The fund could provide additional funds in schools to bring up attendance and therefore the overall achievement of pupils. In Somerset and the South West, local youth services will be able to bid on Better Futures Funding for schemes that will focus on such things as reintegrating children excluded from school, supporting young people experiencing mental health crises and diverting at-risk youth away from criminal or antisocial behaviours. It will also be possible to build on existing regional infrastructure. The South West has many established business partners in health, education, social care, and housing, such as Somerset's Strategic Housing Group integrated approach and community-led support services. The Better Futures Fund will result in a boost in the work of organisations already supporting local vulnerable families by patching any holes in existing networks. The fund is also likely to result in unemployment going down - if sustainable organisations are given more funding then more job opportunities will become available. Children's commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, speaks of a noticeable change in how children and young people talk about their lives. She said: "Issues that were traditionally seen as 'adult' concerns are now keenly felt by children. "Children shared harrowing accounts of hardship, with some in almost Dickensian levels of poverty. "They don't talk about 'poverty' as an abstract concept but about not having the things that most people would consider basic: a safe home that isn't mouldy or full of rats, with a bed big enough to stretch out in, 'luxury' food like bacon, a place to do homework, heating, privacy in the bathroom and being able to wash, having their friends over, and not having to travel hours to school." After a period of undeniable growth in child poverty, hopefully more measures will be put in place along with the existing ones that will lead to an ease in the harsh statistics of the struggling of so many children.
Irish Times
7 days ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Better-off children ‘sailing away from the have-nots', warns Ombudsman
Children from Ireland's financially better-off families are 'sailing away from the have-nots', the State's Children's Ombudsman has warned. The number of children living in poverty has doubled in the last year, Dr Niall Muldoon told the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal. 'They're sailing away from us. The haves are sailing away from the have-nots. And children are the ones who suffer there all the time,' he said. Nearly 5,000 children are currently homeless, even though the State has been running unprecedented budget surpluses in recent years, Dr Muldoon noted. READ MORE 'That's 2,200 families that need to be found a home. That priority has never been given to children, or families.' [ Child homelessness a 'national shame', TDs and Senators told Opens in new window ] Family homelessness was 'not even an issue' until 2012, when post-crash austerity 'kicked in properly' as the State moved away from providing public housing to depending on the private sector, he said. Currently, it costs the State €350 million a year just to house homeless families in Dublin, but the problem can be tackled, he told the summer school. 'It's not intractable. It is something that can be done.' The Government is unable to tell the Office for the Ombudsman for Children how much it spends on children, Dr Muldoon said. 'They can tell me exactly what the State spends on every brick in the [National] Children's Hospital , but not what they spend on children.' Equally, it can explain that the State's mental health budget has grown by a fifth in the last five years to €1.3 billion, 'which is still about half of what most other countries do, but they can't tell me what they spend on children'. Three-quarters of all mental health issues begin in childhood, the summer school heard. 'You would think 75 per cent of the budget, or 50 per cent of the budget should be spent on that. It's not. The reason it isn't is because it allows the other part of the system to use it as a slush fund if necessary.' Chris Quinn, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, said the homelessness crisis is affecting even more children north of the Border, where 5,000 households are in temporary accommodation and 18,000 are registered as homeless. 'It baffles me as to why we have silence on this. In the South, there's a huge outcry about homelessness and the housing situation. In the North, it isn't, but those figures are mind-boggling. [ Children have 'borne the biggest brunt' of homelessness crisis Opens in new window ] 'Poverty's sitting at about 25 per cent. So, one in four children are living in poverty. One in four children are going to school hungry, whose mommy or daddy is choosing to heat the house, or put the dinner on the table for themselves and their children,' he said. One in 10 of 11- to 19-year-olds in a recent Northern Ireland survey declared that they would engage in self-harm, with one in eight young people having suicidal ideation: 'Our child adolescent mental health waiting lists are through the roof,' Mr Quinn went on. The consequences of poverty make people age faster, said Prof Rose Anne Kenny, the founding principal investigator of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) and the chair of Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin . 'Children who experience circumstances actually have an accelerated ageing process,' she said. 'The children experiencing depression at home, alcohol, drugs, homelessness, uncertainty, et cetera – those children age faster.' The faster ageing can be tracked biologically: 'We're creating a society, or a section of society, which will not get a chance at any stage unless we get it right now,' Prof Kenny said. Looking at lessons that can be learned from the United States, Prof Kenny said it has been clearly shown that people who possess a Bachelor of Arts degree die later and are far less likely to die in middle age than people who are poorly educated. Urging parents to encourage children to read and to read to them, Patricia Forde, the State's Laureate na nÓg, warned that the number of children who read regularly, or at all, is falling dramatically – largely explained by the rise in social media use. 'My grand ambition is very simple. I would like every child in Ireland to be a reader. And when I say reader, I don't mean literate, and I don't mean reading as a hobby,' she told the summer school. 'I want children who are reading for pleasure and who form a habit of being readers so that they grow up with something that is beside them at all times that they can read. So, that would be my magic wand moment.'
Irish Times
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, July16th: On children in direct provision, EV charging and swimming safely
Sir, – Through the work of our organisations, we see the experiences of children, young people and their families in communities all across Ireland. We hear of the hardship and the daily struggles families are facing just to get by each week. This is particularly apparent when it comes to children and families living in direct provision. In recent weeks, the media has been full of talk and promises to address child poverty in the upcoming budget and yet these children, who are among the most at risk of poverty in the country, have been waiting far too long for these promises to be fulfilled. Funds for a child-specific income support for those living in international protection were secured in both Budgets 2024 and 2025, but still – nothing has come to fruition. Currently, children and young people living in the international protection system receive just €29.80 per week. Despite significant increases in the cost of living, this has remained unchanged since 2019. In February 2021 the Government committed to introduce an 'additional monthly payment per child in the form of an International Protection Child Payment' in their White Paper to end direct provision. READ MORE The payment was due to be made available in 2022. With Budget 2024 and Budget 2025 allocating €4.7 million and €8.4 million respectively to deliver this payment, children and young people are still waiting for this to happen. Children living in direct provision are the only group of children in the country to see zero increase in supports through successive budgets. Without any means to tackle the increased cost of living, these children are more likely to get pulled into poverty which affects all aspects of their life, from their health and nutrition to their social and emotional development. This is simply not good enough and in a country as wealthy as Ireland, there is no excuse. The investment is there; we now need to see implementation of the International Protection Child Payment as a matter of urgency. We cannot expect children and families to be able to maintain a decent standard of living with less than €30 a week. Even basic essentials are often miles out of reach. These are children and young people growing up in accommodation with no cooking facilities and without adequate income support, we hear of children eating cold meals or carbohydrate-heavy food for months on end. We are even aware of an instance where a young child ate sugar straight from the bag as a desperate means to keep hunger cravings at bay. Young people in direct provision have expressed how a lack of income means they have few opportunities to take part in activities with their friends and peers after school. The financial cost of school trips, after-school activities such as sport or dance class, or even just going out with friends are mere fantasies, creating major barriers for them to integrate or participate in their local communities. We have heard no good reason as to why this vital income support has not been implemented, because there is none. We cannot face into a third budget cycle with no progress made at all on measures we should already see in train. The current programme for government states that the Government will 'set an ambitious child poverty target ensuring a focus on inequality'. If they are to truly realise this commitment, we must see real action to lift all children and young people in direct provision out of poverty. We urge the Government to act immediately on this by providing an adequate child payment for those in direct provision with the funding secured in Budgets 2024 and 2025. – Yours, etc, TANYA WARD, Chief executive, Children's Rights Alliance, SUZANNE CONNOLLY, Chief executive, Barnardos, TERESA HEENEY, CEO, Early Childhood Ireland, NICK HENDERSON, CEO, Irish Refugee Council, MARY CUNNINGHAM, CEO, National Youth Council of Ireland, LOUISE BAYLISS, Head of Social Justice and Policy, Society of St Vincent de Paul, (And 13 others) Dublin. Portiuncula hospital Sir, – The decision by the HSE on the future operations at the Portiuncula Maternity Hospital, Ballinasloe, Co Galway puzzle me ('M aternity services across Ireland should be reviewed, expert group urges following Portiuncula report ,' July 9th). Would it not have been better to remove from the hospital the dangers to the patients rather than the patients? – Yours, etc, GERALDINE GREGAN, Clarecastle, Co Clare. Culture and exclusivity Sir, – I was taken aback by the headline ' Forget bonfires, Croke Park is where our culture is this weekend, ' (July 14th). What I found most disturbing was the use of the word 'our' and its exclusivity as regards culture on this island. It is absolutely true that Moygashel was a disgrace. However, in general, Orange Order parades go off peacefully, if somewhat noisily at times. The Orange Order and its general secretary, Mervyn Gibson, have done a lot of good work in this regard in recent years as have people in west Belfast in relation to transferring energies into féile an phobail events. In 2018 I attended the Belfast 12th of July parade as part of an official Irish government delegation, led by then minister for tourism and sport Brendan Griffin. Before the parade we had a meeting in the Grand Central Hotel with members of the Orange Order which was friendly and informative. Indeed, during the parade it stopped where we were standing and the grand marshall and others came over to welcome us and shake our hands. Surely, if we are to have reconciliation on this island we need to embrace cultures other than the very important, but not exclusive, 'Gaelic' culture and here I refer to the 'tribe' and not the game. Because the headline would indicate that there is one legitimate culture on this island which is the sole repository of 'our' culture. Moygashel and other excesses, appalling as they may be, should not be taken as a reason to reject the loyalist/unionist culture as a legitimate and equal culture on this island. I say this as someone who is a strong believer in Irish unity and a lifelong GAA member. Indeed, the validation of different cultures is a pre-requisite to unity. I believe the headline betrays a somewhat partitionist mentality which has been gaining currency in the Republic where we are defining ourselves in increasingly separatist terms. Here, I must acknowledge the outstanding and vital research being conducted by ARINS, led by Prof Brendan O'Leary and supported by The Irish Times in relation to North/South issues, often without sufficient recognition. Also, I am sure Malachy Clerkin, a journalist whom I admire greatly, was not being perniciously exclusive. But separation rather than unity is a creeping trend. – Yours, etc, JIM D'ARCY, Blackrock, Co Louth. Up Meath, and Donegal Sir, – Instilled with a pride for Meath football from a very early age (by a very proud Meath woman, my mother), I reflected upon the scoreline from the semi-final on Sunday. While it may have been far from the desired outcome on the day, but at a time where sad news, bad news, and global uncertainty can dominate the world headlines, this Meath team gave us something to focus on, lifting the spirits of the county, creating great banter with our neighbours, and a few great trips to Croke Park over the summer! It reignited many happy childhood memories, of Sunday afternoons over great summers. Our household, and my loyal friend Catherine, cheering for the greats such as Martin O'Connell, Robbie O'Malley, David Beggy, Graham Geraghty, Liam Hayes, Trevor Giles to name only a few, and when Ollie Murphy got that ball, we knew great scores were ahead! I will always remember the excitement when Liam Hayes brought the Sam Maguire to our school in Westmeath (thanks to his sister, who was our amazing English teacher). The excitement and passion in her eyes on sharing the experience was so energising. Meath have a fantastic up and coming team and I look forward to the future experiences that they will lead us through. Donegal played a great game on Sunday. Their supporters were brilliant craic, and on Sunday it was their turn to have the excitement in their eyes. Wishing them the very, very best to take it all the way in the All-Ireland. In the meanwhile, I'll proudly display my Meath flag, for another while. Up Meath! – Yours, etc, ISOBEL HARRIS, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. Sir, – Please allow me a few personal thoughts on last Sunday's semi-final between Donegal and Meath. I watched in awe our wonderful Donegal boys play with such brilliance and passion, that my heart near stopped and a few tears appeared. I'm going to put myself out there, and say, with the greatest of respect to Kerry: No team could possibly beat such brilliance and passion. So be it. – Yours, etc, BRIAN McDEVITT, Glenties, Co Donegal. Charging your vehicles at home Sir, – I totally agree with the selection of reader responses regarding the challenges of public charging of EVs. It is not good enough and a lot of public charging doesn't fit the profile of its users. However, I think it would have been good to get the perspective of somebody with a driveway and a home charger. For these people, EVs are a brilliant idea. A fuel pump in your driveway that fills the car overnight at cheap prices? Sign me up. Well, I did sign up 3½ years ago, and my average annual fuel bill is about ¤150 for 15,000km. And I have never had to wait for a public charger because less than 10 per cent of my charging is done publicly, generally on holidays. There are a lot of petrol and diesel cars sitting in driveways this morning that could just as easily be EVs with home charging at no inconvenience to their drivers. – Yours, etc, CHRIS CUMMINS, Sandyford, Dublin 18. City centre and apartment living Sir, – Richard Allen (Letters, July 15th) notes that despite long campaigning for the desirability of apartments, former Irish Times environment editor, Frank McDonald, has now 'changed his mind' and decided to move to the suburbs, perhaps missing the fact that Mr McDonald has moved from one apartment to another. Mr McDonald explained his move was due to several factors including the Government's failure to protect city centre apartment dwellers with appropriate 'European style' noise control legislation. Those of us agreeing with Mr McDonald, that apartments are desirable, environmentally friendly and suitable for many Irish people, are dismayed to find the Government once again lowering apartment standards rather than introducing a coherent planning and regulatory framework to support apartment and city centre living. The focus should be on giving people the option to live in the city centre, rather than the option to move out. – Yours, etc, STEPHEN WALL, Rialto, Dublin 8. Sir, – May I correct Frank McDonald when he refers to the Meeting House in Eustace Street as a Presbyterian Meeting House (' Why I moved out of Temple Bar after 25 years: I feared our home would become uninhabitable, ' July 12th)? It was in fact a Quaker Meeting House (Society of Friends) Meeting House. With respect. – Yours, etc, HELEN BAILY, Dublin. Swimming safety and rip currents Sir, – Too many of our young people especially are drowning in our seas and rivers on an all too regular basis, often caused by rip currents. Many of these tragedies are completely avoidable, even for non-swimmers. People tend to panic when they encounter a rip current and assume you must try to swim ashore to survive it, however the current will only pull you offshore, exhaustion sets in and, too often, tragedy strikes. What one actually needs to do to survive a rip current is to swim parallel to the shore (or wade if possible) until you are free of the rip, only then should you swim or wade ashore. Why aren't there more visible preventative guidelines on rip currents available from Water Safety Ireland? Guidelines on signs at beaches? Maybe a summer television ad demonstrating what to do if one encounters a rip current, for example? Information confined to an authority's website is not going to have the same reach. Let's not lose any more people unnecessarily to our waters. – Yours, etc, ANNETTE CANTWELL, Perrystown, Dublin 12. Continuing woes of letter writers Sir, – I've been writing letters to The Irish Times for years, mainly criticising Ireland's role as an international tax haven. You think you notice patterns over the years (very subjective this). I used to have a hit rate of one in three letters being published. A few years ago I wrote strident letters (unpublished) criticising having Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe reviewing books on economics. My hit rate fell to one in five around then and has stayed like that until recently. To my surprise my letter critical of Paschal Donohoe's reviews was published a couple of months ago. This is my 14th letter since and none have been published. Is this a record? – Yours, etc, PAUL CONNOLLY, Cavan. Sir, – Until recently, in the Letters page, you regularly printed an advisory to letter writers that it is possible to find space for only a small selection of the many letters received. In doing so, you yourself used up valuable space. Lately, you've taken to publishing letters by letter writers about letter writers, often themselves, whose letters have not been published. Words fail me. – Yours, etc, MICHAEL KEEGAN, Booterstown, Co Dublin. Sir, – If you think it's difficult to get a letter printed in the Irish Times (Rejection is cruel, but rejection by..., Letters, July 15th), you should try The Guardian! – Yours, etc, BILL REDMOND, Edinburgh Scotland. Sir, – 'A rejection may spoil your breakfast but you shouldn't let it spoil your lunch,' to paraphrase Kingsley Amis. – Yours, etc, ANNE MARIE KENNEDY, Co Galway.
The Independent
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
No commitment to scrap two-child benefit cap until funding is clear
The Government will not commit to lifting the two-child benefit cap until it is clear how it will be paid for, a minister has told the Commons. Further calls to scrap the controversial policy were made by Labour backbenchers on Tuesday, during a Conservative-led debate focused on retaining the cap. There were more than 1.6 million children living in households in England, Wales and Scotland affected by the two-child benefit limit in April, according to figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions last week. Work and pensions minister Alison McGovern said the Child Poverty Task Force will look at 'all the levers across incomes, costs, debt and local support that we can pull to prevent poverty, including social security reform'. Speaking during the opposition day debate, she added: 'Our universal credit review is considering ways that the system can improve in order to stabilise family finances and provide routes into good work. 'And on the two-child limit, specifically, the consequences, as I've said in my speech, of the Conservative choices made over the past decade and a half are clear for all to see. 'We have rightly said many times we will not commit to any policy without knowing how we are going to pay for it.' Labour MP for Rochdale, Paul Waugh, said: '59% of families (who) have more than two children, on universal credit, are in work, and that's far from the feckless parent caricature that we've heard today from the Conservatives. 'And more importantly, does she agree with me that actually it's the children (who) should come first, and because the children should come first, we should urgently scrap the two-child cap as quickly as possible?' Ms McGovern declined to respond directly to Mr Waugh's question, instead arguing that the Conservative Party 'only wants to divide people'. Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman also said 'the Government should lift it immediately', adding: 'Having a child is a blessing, not a blessing everyone receives, and the two-child cap is an inherently cruel policy that punishes the least advantaged. 'The idea that a third or a fourth or a fifth child is worth less than the first two is beyond wicked.' Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately had described the welfare bill as a 'ticking time bomb' as she opened the debate. She added: 'We have brought forward this debate today on the two-child limit, because somebody has to make the case for fiscal responsibility, for living within our means, for fairness, for making sure work pays, and for keeping the two-child cap.' MPs rejected the Conservatives' motion that the benefit cap should remain, with 106 voting in favour, 440 against, majority 334.
