DWP urged to scrap controversial rule for parents in major UN report

A UN report has called on Keir Starmer’s Labour Party government to reverse the two-child benefit limit from the DWP and a raft of Tory-era austerity measures.

The Department for Work and Pensions two-child benefit limit should be axed, says a major UN report. A UN report has called on Keir Starmer’s Labour Party government to reverse the two-child benefit limit from the DWP and a raft of Tory-era austerity measures.

The UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says ministers should now launch independent assessment of the impact of austerity measures introduced since 2010. It raises concerns that reforms have led to “severe economic hardship, increased reliance on food banks, homelessness… and stigmatisation of benefit claimants”.

In recommendations, the report says the government should “conduct an independent assessment of the cumulative impact of austerity measures introduced since 2010”. And it also says the goverment should now take “corrective measures”, including “reversing policies such as the two-child limit, the benefit cap and the five-week delay for the first Universal Credit payment”.

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A person familiar with discussions said officials are “keen to mitigate the impact of the cap, if not lift it entirely”. “They have been discussing a range of options to do so, but at the moment, helping parents of under-fives seems to be one of the most likely,” the source told the paper. Another said the priority is to have child poverty falling by the next general election.

The two-child benefit cap, imposed by Tory former chancellor George Osborne, prevents parents from claiming benefits for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.

And think tank the Resolution Foundation said the prime minister’s plan to tackle child poverty will lack credibility if it remains in place. He has previously called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped, but has said Labour cannot afford to abandon the policy.

Sir Keir’s child poverty taskforce is due to present a strategy in spring but the think tank’s report warned the current two-child limit is “incompatible with a credible” plan.