Overview
- Legislation to remove the two-child limit on Universal Credit and tax credits cleared its second reading and now moves to detailed scrutiny in Parliament.
- The government has indicated it wants the change in place from April if the bill becomes law.
- The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates the policy will cost around £3 billion a year by 2029/30.
- A government impact assessment says about 60,000 eligible families will see some or all of their gains curbed by the household benefit cap, which limits total benefits for workless households to roughly £22,000 a year outside London.
- Independent and official analyses project substantial poverty reductions, with JRF estimating about 400,000 fewer children in poverty this April and the government aiming for 550,000 fewer by 2030, as up to 570,000 households gain by 2030/31.