The lifting of the two-child benefit limit will be felt by over 15,000 children across Hull and East Yorkshire.
In her Budget last week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the policy, which she said “has pushed hundred of thousands of children into poverty,” will be lifted from April.
The two-child benefit limit prevents parents from claiming Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit for more than two children, and was introduced by the Conservative Government in 2017. Announcing the move to remove the limit, which is estimated to cost £3 billion a year by 2029-30, Ms Reeves said her party did “not believe that the solution to a broken welfare system is to punish the most vulnerable children”.
The two-child benefit limit affected a record high of 469,780 households across Great Britain in the year to April 2025, according to figures from the Department of Work and Pensions. The majority of those households (59%) were in work, and were home to a total of 1.7 million children.
Across the six Hull and East Yorkshire constituencies, there are 15,770 children in households that are affected by the limit. The area with the most, both in amount and proportionality, is Karl Turner’s Hull East constituency where 4,580 children live in affected households, a figure which makes up 21% of the local child population.
Joseph Howes, CEO of Buttle UK and Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition has welcomed the Government’s decision to scrap the limit. He said: “We commend The Chancellor on her decision to scrap the two-child limit, which will lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.
“This provides real hope for families across the country. More children will grow up with the security, opportunity, and support they deserve. This change will help lift futures, giving more children the chance to dream bigger, learn without limits, and grow up knowing they are valued.” Also praising the move and writing in the New Statesman, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who also served as Tony Blair’s Chancellor between 1997 and 2007, described the cap as “a scar on the country’s soul and a stain on our collective conscience.”
The Chancellor has also received criticism from opposition figures including the leader of the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch. In her response to the budget, Ms Badenoch told the House of Commons: “This is a Budget for Benefit Street, paid for by working people.” She has since confirmed that her party would reinstate the cap.
Ms Badenoch went on to say: “This Budget increases benefits for 560,000 families by an average of £5,000. They are hiking taxes on workers, pensioners, and savers, to pay for handouts to keep their backbenchers quiet.”
By: Andrew Spence, LDRS
