A CABINET minister has refused to confirm whether the Labour Government will keep the the two-child benefit cap in place in a bid to save money.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the UK Government was "looking at every lever" and that decisions had been made "harder" by the partial U-turn on benefits cuts.
Labour had attempted to save around £5 billion a year by cutting welfare, mostly for those claiming disability and health benefits, but made concessions following a revolt from MPs.
The move means the Treasury may not see any savings at all as the welfare budget is still set to rise in the coming years.
Reports in the media this week have suggested that ministers could keep the cap in order to save money.
And on Sunday, the Times reported a No10 source saying plans to scrap the cap were "now dead in the water".
Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Phillipson – who co-chairs the UK Government's child poverty taskforce with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – said ministers would "continue to look at every lever to lift children out of poverty".
"But all of that said, we will look at this collectively in terms of all of the ways that we can lift children out of poverty."
The Education Secretary also said that the Labour Government "pushed ahead too fast" and "didn't listen enough" on welfare reform.
She said: "I'd be the first to acknowledge that, both in the pace and the nature of what we set out, we didn't get it right, but we do need to reform the system we've got.
"What the Prime Minister has said, and what I also believe, is that what we set out, we pushed ahead too fast, we didn't listening enough to people, including, I would say, including to lots of people who had concerns about the nature of that change."
In a separate interview with the Sunday Times, Phillipson said that changes to the cap were still "on the table" but that they would "come at a cost".
She told the paper: “The two-child limit was something that a Conservative government put in place. It’s not something that we would have done, but of course we are mindful that any changes around social security do come at a cost.”
Phillipson's comments come after the SNP urged Keir Starmer not to "punish" children by keeping the two-child cap in place.
SNP MP Pete Wishart said scrapping the cap was "the absolute bare minimum – and it should have been done on the Labour Government’s first day in power."
He added: “It’s pathetic that senior Labour Party figures now want to keep this punitive welfare cut just to show rebel MPs who’s in charge.
“Saving Keir Starmer embarrassment is not more important than tackling child poverty.”
Starmer previously indicated that the Labour Government would only abolish the two-child cap when it had the money to do so.
Asked in May whether he would scrap the policy, he said: "We'll look at all the options of driving down child poverty."
