A further 37,000 children were affected by the two-child benefit limit in the year to April, with nearly 1.7 million now living in households affected by the policy, according to new figures described as “devastating and shameful” by charities.
Data released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Thursday shows that one in nine children are now affected by the policy, while 62% of affected families have three children and 59% are in work.
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) described it as a “brutal policy” that was making children’s “lives hard and their futures bleak”.
“Giving all kids the best start in life will be impossible until government scraps this brutal policy, and a year after the election families can’t wait any longer for the help they desperately need,” said the charity’s chief executive, Alison Garnham.
The new data shows that 469,780 households on universal credit were affected by the two-child limit in April 2025, meaning their access to certain benefits was restricted for a third or subsequent child born after the rule was introduced in 2017. This is an increase of 13,520 (3%) on the previous year.
There are now 1,665,540 children living in affected households, an increase of 37,150 (2%) on the previous year.
Dan Paskins, the executive director of policy, advocacy and campaigns at Save the Children UK, said the figures were “devastating and shameful in equal measure”.
“Almost 40,000 more children are now being punished just for having siblings,” he said. “Behind every number is a child missing out on essentials like food, clothing and a decent home, through no fault of their own. The government must do the right thing and abolish the two-child limit, or risk being the first Labour government to oversee a significant rise in child poverty.”
CPAG said it estimated the policy had pushed 350,000 children into poverty, as well as 700,000 children into deeper poverty, since 2017. It said 109 children were being pushed into poverty each day by the policy.
John Bird, the founder of the Big Issue and a crossbench peer, said: “We must call this what it is: a poverty crisis. And government policy that creates this crisis cannot be tolerated. It is both a moral and a political necessity that this government ends the two-child benefit cap at the autumn budget. The public will not stomach any more inaction from Labour.”
He added that any savings the two-child benefit cap brought “will create far more expense for our society now and down the line”.
“Its consequences will be felt in our schools, our NHS, our prisons, and one day, in the same social security system that fails these children,” he said.
Earlier this week, the children’s commissioner said young people were living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty” as pressure built on the government to scrap the controversial policy.
But the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, indicated that the government’s U-turn on welfare cuts last week may make scrapping the policy more difficult.
A government spokesperson said: “We are determined to give all children the best possible start in life. Through our Plan for Change, we are reforming the broken social security system to help those who can work into good, well-paid jobs, which is the best way to improve living standards for families.
“We are also rolling out a national network of life-changing family hubs for children across the country as well as expanding free school meals and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a fair repayment rate on universal credit deductions.
“The child poverty taskforce will publish an ambitious strategy later this year to ensure we deliver fully funded measures that tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty across the country.”
