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The United Kingdom is one of the richest countries in the world, so why do more than a third of its children live in poverty?
The numbers are truly astounding. Depending on how you calculate it, the UK is probably the fifth or sixth wealthiest country today. Yet, according to newly published data, 5.2 million children in the UK live in poverty. That’s 36 percent of all kids in the country.
The new(ish) government is integrating the fresh data into its official statistics and announced a Child Poverty Taskforce to study the problem. That sounds reasonable: the issue of child poverty is complex, there are many factors to consider, and deeper understanding should lead to better policies.
However, at least one cause of child poverty in the UK is glaringly obvious right now: the country’s “two-child limit” on state support. This policy, introduced by the previous government in 2017, cuts off child-related social security benefits to low-income households after the second child.
You can get support for raising your first two kids but not for any you have after that.
Why two? It’s completely arbitrary. The last government imposed austerity measures and pretty much chose the number two out of a hat.
The two-child policy clearly hurts larger families – and there are many of them. Some 440,000 families are affected by the policy. They lose out on £3,455 per child per year.
Half of all children in poverty in the UK are in this group, that is, in families with three or more children. What’s more, evidence shows the two-child rule is driving increasing child poverty in the country.
Despite the new data and all the evidence, however, the Labour government has been dragging its feet. It has resisted calls to repeal the Conservative government’s two-child policy. Maybe the Labour government is waiting for the Child Poverty Taskforce to weigh in, but neither the terms of reference nor the strategy framework of the Taskforce even mention this policy.
In any case, children living in poverty in the UK today shouldn’t have to wait for the results of the Taskforce deliberations on something as obvious as this, something where the problem has been studied and an immediate solution well-known.
These kids need help now. Making them wait six months or two years or however long the Taskforce process takes is just adding Labour insult to Conservative injury.
As HRW's Kartik Raj, writes: “Children in families making decisions about whether their low incomes will stretch to pay for food, electricity, or new school shoes, do not have the luxury of time.”
