Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, said the extra payments, worth about 200, would particularly help this group of parents who have no additional income before their first child is born.
Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, described the move as 'a small step down a long road'. She urged the Government to increase child benefit for younger children to the rate received for the older child, estimating that it could lift a further 250,000 children out of poverty.
Currently, child benefits start from birth at 17.45 a week for the first child and 11.70 for each additional child.
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