The Government will not commit to lifting the two-child benefit cap until it is clear how it will be paid for, a minister has told the Commons.
Further calls to scrap the controversial policy were made by Labour backbenchers on Tuesday, during a Conservative-led debate focused on retaining the cap.
There were more than 1.6 million children living in households in England, Wales and Scotland affected by the two-child benefit limit in April, according to figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions last week.
Work and pensions minister Alison McGovern said the Child Poverty Task Force will look at “all the levers across incomes, costs, debt and local support that we can pull to prevent poverty, including social security reform”.
Speaking during the opposition day debate, she added: “Our universal credit review is considering ways that the system can improve in order to stabilise family finances and provide routes into good work.
“And on the two-child limit, specifically, the consequences, as I’ve said in my speech, of the Conservative choices made over the past decade and a half are clear for all to see.
“We have rightly said many times we will not commit to any policy without knowing how we are going to pay for it.”
Labour MP for Rochdale, Paul Waugh, said: “59% of families (who) have more than two children, on universal credit, are in work, and that’s far from the feckless parent caricature that we’ve heard today from the Conservatives.
“And more importantly, does she agree with me that actually it’s the children (who) should come first, and because the children should come first, we should urgently scrap the two-child cap as quickly as possible?”
Ms McGovern declined to respond directly to Mr Waugh’s question, instead arguing that the Conservative Party “only wants to divide people”.
Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth Brian Leishman also said “the Government should lift it immediately”, adding: “Having a child is a blessing, not a blessing everyone receives, and the two-child cap is an inherently cruel policy that punishes the least advantaged.
“The idea that a third or a fourth or a fifth child is worth less than the first two is beyond wicked.”
Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately had described the welfare bill as a “ticking time bomb” as she opened the debate.
She added: “We have brought forward this debate today on the two-child limit, because somebody has to make the case for fiscal responsibility, for living within our means, for fairness, for making sure work pays, and for keeping the two-child cap.”
MPs rejected the Conservatives’ motion that the benefit cap should remain, with 106 voting in favour, 440 against, majority 334.
