CHILDREN should “not be put in tiers”, an SNP MP has said, following reports that the Chancellor is considering a “tapered” approach to lifting the two-child cap.
Last week, after neither Keir Starmer nor Rachel Reeves confirmed they would fully scrap the cap in their speeches at the Labour Party conference, reports suggested that the Treasury is looking at ways to amend the policy, brought in by the Conservative government in 2017.
The policy restricted Universal Credit and the former Child Tax Credit for families with more than two children, and has been widely criticised by charities for keeping children and families in poverty.
It was briefed that officials are considering limiting additional benefits to three or four children, introducing a tapered rate so parents would get the most for their first child and less for subsequent children, or only lifting the cap for working parents on universal credit.
Kirsty Blackman, SNP MP for Aberdeen South, insisted that for any impact to be made, there should be a universal approach, and the UK Government should scrap it completely.
Last year, 1.7 million children in England, Wales and Scotland were impacted by the policy.
Blackman introduced a bill to the House of Commons last month, seeking to completely scrap the two-child benefit cap. It passed the first stage, but all Scottish Labour MPs, except Brian Leishman, who sponsored the bill, abstained on the vote.
Speaking to the Sunday National, Blackman said she was worried that the Labour Government “aren’t going to do anything meaningful at all, and that's why they keep pushing it back”.
She added that while ministers dither and delay on which way to handle the controversial policy, 100 children a day are put into poverty as a result of it.
“Every day it means that more children are struggling with the impacts of poverty,” Blackman said.
“In terms of tapering, we just need to get rid of it. It is the most cost-effective way to massively reduce child poverty.
“And actually, if you're living in a property with lots of bairns, if you're living in a property just the same as if you're living in a property with a disabled family member, you're more likely to be in higher levels of poverty.
“Tapering just seems like it's going to impact those who need the support the most, especially when you couple that with the benefit cap.”
It is estimated that a tapered approach, or a three-child limit, would leave between 120,000 and 350,000 more children in poverty than if the cap were completely removed, according to research from the Resolution Foundation.
According to government figures, scrapping the cap completely would cost £3.5 billion a year.
Blackman also pointed to research conducted by the Child Poverty Action Group, which found that people living in the largest families in the UK are “struggling the most”. “When you have bairns, you don't necessarily expect that you're going to lose your job,” she added.
“You don't expect that you're going to end up disabled and unable to work full-time anymore. You don't expect that you're not going to be able to do further training, and then you're hit by this, when actually the state should be providing that safety net, it should be supporting you.
“We need to be doing more. It's not the fault of these bairns.”
On plans to lift the two-child cap for working parents, Blackman pointed to figures that show 59% of families affected by the policy are in work.
“You're still talking about a significant number of folk that you're having to spend that money on, but avoiding helping some of the ones that need it most,” she said.
“I mean, if you're long-term sick, disabled, if you can't work for that reason, then surely you're most in need of help, rather than the folk that are working.
“I would do the other way around if I were going to differentiate, but I'm for universality anyway.
“I think it's really important that we don't put children into different tiers. We just support them all.”
Blackman insisted that the SNP will continue to press for “full abolition” of the policy, whatever announcement Reeves makes at the Budget in November.
She added that the party is continuing to press for removing the bedroom tax, the benefit cap, and uplifting the child element of Universal Credit by £27.15 per child per week, to match the Scottish Child Payment.
Blackman explained: “Because if you take all of those things into account, then you end up with 2.3 million households being taken out of poverty as a result.
“I mean, we can show that what's happened in Scotland with everything that we've put in place, with the best start grants, with the Scottish Child Payment, with the baby box, we are actually reducing child poverty in Scotland.
“It's the only part of the UK where child poverty is reducing, and it works. It makes a difference to kids and to their families. The UK Government should follow our lead.”
On September 16, Blackman’s Child Poverty Strategy (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill passed the first stage with 89 MPs voting for it, and 79 against.
Other than Leishman, Blackman said Scottish Labour MPs “ignored the bill and refused to vote on it”. It was a Conservative MP, Peter Bedford, who spoke against her proposals in the House of Commons.
Blackman described Labour’s refusal to engage on the legislation as "super chicken”.
She argued that backbench Labour MPs, seven of whom backed the legislation, have the power to exert pressure on the UK Government, as they did in response to proposed cuts to disability benefits, forcing ministers into a screeching U-turn.
“If they strongly believe that the two-child cap should stay in place, they should stand up and say that,” Blackman said.
“Rather than this briefing, and the way that we've had people marched up the hill and down again repeatedly about what is and isn't going to be said on this – just make a decision, stand up, and explain it to people.
“And if you're refusing to do what all of the experts and what a significant proportion of MPs are asking you to do, then you need to own that.
“They need to stand there and explain exactly why they are trying to keep children in poverty and have 100 more kids a day plunge into poverty.”
