School leaders call on ministers to scrap ‘poverty-producing’ two-child benefit cap

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy School leaders, governors and teachers have called on the education secretary to scrap the “poverty-producing” two-child benefit cap. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has previously said she would not abolish the limit as it would “cost more than £3bn a year”, adding: “We are not going to make spending commitments without being able to say where the money is going to come from.” Scrapping the policy would lift an estimated 300,000 children out of poverty, according to the Child Poverty Action Group. For too long now we have seen the ways in which child poverty is having a detrimental effect on the wellbeing, attainment and attendance of children and young people, and it is becoming ever more impossible for schools to mitigate this.” open image in gallery Education secretary Bridget Phillipson is coordinating a child poverty taskforce They said that scrapping the benefit cap would “transform the life chances of the almost 1.6 million children affected by the policy across the UK”. “Without action, more than 60 per cent of children in families with three or more children will be affected by the policy by the time it is fully rolled out and our school system will be stretched beyond repair.” A government spokesperson said: “No child should be in poverty – that’s why our new cross-government taskforce will develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty and give children the best start in life.