The Work and Pensions Secretary insisted the number of children living in poverty “will be going down” under the Labour Government – saying she would not break her promise.
The benefit cap prevents people on universal credit or tax credits from claiming additional support for more than two children.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announcing cuts to disability benefits in the House of Commons last month (Photo: House of Commons/Reuters)
Kendall told The i Paper Labour had voted against the implementation of the policy when it was introduced under Conservative PM David Cameron.
“I’m not into a wing and a prayer, I’m into solid action. People deserve that and you’ll just have to wait until we publish our child poverty strategy.”
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The Government’s position has been that it intends to lift the cap – which is deeply unpopular among many Labour MPs – when the economic situation allows for it.
“I’ve seen the impact in Leicester that it’s had – that and a whole series of things – on child poverty. I’ve got one in three kids in my constituency growing up poor, and the lifelong consequences of that are unacceptable. It is one of the reasons I came into politics.”
The i Paper previously reported that the Government was moving away from the prospect of fully scrapping the cap and instead looking to reform it, with discussions continuing as part of the ministerial taskforce on child poverty.
A recent Government impact assessment suggested welfare cuts, announced by Kendall last month, would result in another 50,000 more children in poverty.
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Kendall added: “We’ve got a clear manifesto commitment to tackle poverty and drive child poverty down and that is what we will deliver. Child poverty will be going down.”
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the child relative poverty rate increased from 27 to 30 per cent between 2010 and 2023 – entirely driven by an increase in poverty among families with three or more children.
Doing so would cost an estimated £2.5bn a year.
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