Rushanara Ali, a leading Bangladeshi politician in the UK Parliament, has called on the British government to scrap its “nasty” two-child limit on state benefits accrued to poor families in the country.
The Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, the east London area dominated by Bangladeshi migrants, made the intervention after latest official figures released this week showed that nearly 600,000 children were affected by the controversial policy.
“The two-child limit policy is having an unprecedented impact on the living standards of our poorest families. It will force 300,000 more families into poverty by 2024. The government should scrap this nasty policy and stop punishing children,” said Ali.
The limit means that taxpayer-funded child allowance worth £2,780 a year is only paid for the first two children in a family. The allowance is a way of helping out poorer families with their cost of bringing up a family but now families do not get any assistance for more than two children. According to reports, nearly all families affected by the two-child limit – which leaves them around £53 a week worse off – have had to cut back on essentials such as food, medication, heating and clothing.
“In the UK we would never turn a third-born child away from school or hospital. How can it be right to deny the same young children the support they need to enjoy a childhood free from poverty when their family falls on hard times,” questioned Alison Garnham from the UK’s Child Poverty Action Group.
The limit prevents parents claiming Child Tax Credits or Universal Credit for third or subsequent children born after 6 April 2017 and expects families to share the same budget they had for two children among three, four or more. The policy, which came into force a few years ago, was promoted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as a way to persuade more and more people with families into work.
A UK government spokesperson said: “This policy ensures fairness by asking families receiving benefits to face the same financial choices as families supporting themselves solely through work.
“Safeguards are in place and we’ve made changes this year to make the policy fairer.”