Two-child benefits limit hurts the poor | Letters

The cap pushes a million children deeper below the poverty line, says Ruth Lister, while Paul Nicolson points out that the very rich can pass land on to their three or four children tax free

Your report (Ministers urged to scrap ‘nasty’ two-child limit on benefits, 1 August) rightly warns of the likely impact on overall levels of child poverty. However, given that the majority of children affected are already in poverty, perhaps even more worrying is the Child Poverty Action Group’s estimate that a million children (over half of those concerned) will be pushed deeper below the poverty line.

From the research you cite, it would seem that the two-child limit is undermining the government’s own policies, including on domestic abuse, refugee integration and family conflict. Yet it is doing nothing to monitor its impact. This betrays the kind of irresponsible indifference to the effects of its policies on the wellbeing of some of the poorest children and families in our society, lambasted recently by the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
Ruth Lister
Labour, House of Lords

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