Coronavirus: Charities call on Government to lift the two-child universal credit limit

The Church of England and Child Poverty Action Group are calling on the Government to suspend the policy, which was introduced in April 2017 and restricts child allowances in universal credit (UC) and tax credits worth up to £50 per week per child, to the first two children in a family.

The report, No one knows what the future can hold, launched by the charities today (5 May), estimates that around 60,000 families forced to claim universal credit since mid-March because of COVID-19 will discover that they will not get the support their family needs. This is on top of an estimated 230,000 families that have already been affected by the two-child limit up until April.

A survey of 974 families affected by the policy, which was carried out by the charities between February 2019 and April 2020, reveals that families are going without basics, children's well-being and development is compromised, and family stability, relationships and mental health have been jeopardised.

The report highlights the ‘injustice of the policy’ which mostly affects working families - 59 percent of all survey respondents - since no parent could have planned their family size with foresight of the pandemic.  

Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said that many parents who could comfortably support a third or subsequent child before the pandemic will be shocked to find that their financial security ‘falls away’ because of the virus, as they are forced to rely on social security, but find that there is no support in universal credit for their third or subsequent child.

She added, ‘The Government has been quick to respond so far but further steps are needed and this policy should be suspended immediately to prevent more families – many of whom never expected to claim social security – from falling into real hardship.’