By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Charities have called on the Government’s Work and Pensions Secretary to drop the “detrimental” two-child benefit cap during a visit to Nottinghamshire.
Liz Kendall, MP for Leicester West and Work and Pensions Secretary, was in the county on Thursday (January 9) to speak to local people and organisations about the Government’s work to reduce child poverty.
She met a charity leaders at Ollerton Town Hall in the Newark and Sherwood constituency, where 6,896 children currently live in poverty.
In Ollerton alone, around 40 per cent of children are living in absolute poverty.
Debbie Webster, manager of the St Ann’s Advice Group, a charity delivering free social welfare law advice, raised the issue of the two-child benefit cap with Ms Kendall.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Ms Webster said: “There was a vote on it before Christmas, and it is not going to be abolished, and that is going to have a detrimental effect.
“It is causing about 1.6m children to live in poverty, so I think the first one good thing it could do would be to take away that cap.
“I think the Government is genuine. I do think you join the Labour Party for all the right reasons and do want to see change, but the situation they find themselves in sometimes determines what they can actually achieve.
“The outcome of [today’s meeting] was these are things the Government does want to change, but it cannot do that without securing the finances.”
All children can get child benefit which is available to all families regardless of how many children they have, while low income families can receive more help in the form of child tax credits and Universal Credit.
However in 2015 the previous Conservative government announced a two-child cap, meaning low income families can only claim additional support for their first two children.
“I believe the days where you pull a switch from Whitehall are done,” the Work and Pensions Secretary told the LDRS.
“You have to work with local people and local organisations if you are going to get this right.
“In the first Labour Budget we introduced a new fair repayment rate in Universal Credit that will give the poorest 1.2m families on average £420 a year. It is not everything, but it is a really important step forward.
“We are also introducing breakfast clubs in every primary school.
“People here today raised [the two-child benefit cap] directly with me and I know the impact this has had.
“We will only make promises about policies when we know we can pay for them. I know the impact the social security system has, but I also believe giving parents more opportunities to get better paid work and childcare they need is the long-term solution out of poverty.”
Michelle Welsh, Newark and Sherwood’s MP, said she finds the child poverty figures for her area “outrageous”.
“One of the reasons I asked the minister today to come here is because for far too long this constituency has been neglected,” she said.
Asked about the two-child cap she added: “The most important thing this Government can do is act sensibly in terms of the budget, because ultimately we have a situation here in Nottinghamshire and the country where services for children have been decimated.
“I’m all about tackling child poverty, but I am also about running a country where we don’t have to in five years start stripping away services because we have misspent funding.
“If we can get housing right, early years’ provision right, the childcare right, breakfast clubs in place, and get people back working, that will have a huge impact on children. Make no mistake, the two-child cap is not off the agenda, it is still something I will raise.”
