Chancellor understood to be preparing to fully reverse measure, which would cost over £3bn but could lift 350,000 children out of poverty
Rachel Reeves is planning to remove the two-child benefit cap in full in the November budget, in a move that could cost more than £3bn but lift 350,000 children out of poverty.
The chancellor is understood to be preparing to reverse the Conservative measure entirely, having originally looked at ways to taper it either for very large families or richer ones.
Reeves is acting after the prime minister, Keir Starmer, insisted that Labour should go into the next election having reduced child poverty. But the chancellor is also hoping removing the cap, which is popular with voters but deeply unpopular among Labour MPs, will placate many in her party who are concerned about the political consequences of a possible rise in income tax.
The chancellor told BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday: “I don’t think we can lose sight of the costs to our economy in allowing child poverty to go unchecked. In the end, a child should not be penalised because their parents don’t have very much money.”
