MPs resoundingly vote to scrap two-child profit cap | EUROtoday

Legislation to scrap the controversial two-child restrict has cleared its preliminary parliamentary stage, transferring the coverage on step nearer to abolition.

Introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, the coverage restricts youngster tax credit score and Universal Credit (UC) to the primary two kids.

During a Commons debate, it was branded a “political exercise in division between the “deserving and undeserving poor”.

MPs overwhelmingly backed scrapping the policy, voting 458 to 104 – a majority of 354 – to pass the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill at its second reading.

Campaigners say the limit pushes 109 children into poverty daily across the UK.

If enacted, the change would allow families to receive the child element of UC for all their children, regardless of family size.

The Bill now faces further scrutiny from MPs and peers before becoming law. However, the government has indicated its intention to ditch the two-child limit from April.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the policy had seen children used as pawns for almost a decade.

He told MPs: “It (the policy) was never really about welfare reform, nor was it even about saving money.

“No, this was always first and foremost a political exercise, an attempt to set a trap for opponents, with children used as the pawns in the exercise.

“This was all about the politics of dividing lines, dividing lines between so-called shirkers and strivers, between the old distinction of the deserving and undeserving poor.”

Labour had faced calls to scrap the policy since it came to power in summer 2024, but cited spending controls as a reason for not being able to ditch it immediately – indicating there would be no change without economic growth.

Seven Labour MPs were suspended by the party after backing an SNP motion to scrap the welfare measure in a vote in Parliament that year.

Following repeated calls from charities, campaigners and many of the party’s own MPs, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in the autumn budget last year that the Government would move to scrap the policy from April.

The Conservatives have previously said they would re-instate the policy if they came back into power, with shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately telling the Commons many families are “doing the maths” of whether they should have another child.

She said: “Why should people on benefits get to avoid the hard choices faced by everyone else?”

Echoing this, her party colleague, Conservative former deputy prime minister Sir Oliver Dowden, defended the policy as having had a “principle” behind it “which is, will people take responsibility for their own actions?”

He added: “Because there are thousands, millions of people who choose not to have more children because they want to take responsibility for their lives and they don’t want the state to take responsibility.

“And yet now with this change, the Government is saying to those people, not only will the state take responsibility, you as the individual will have to pay for it through higher taxes.”

Reform UK chief Nigel Farage beforehand mentioned his occasion would abolish the coverage, however later clarified that will solely be for households the place each mother and father have been British and dealing full-time. Last month, he mentioned his occasion’s MPs would vote in opposition to eliminating the restrict.

Backing the Government Bill, Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson Steve Darling mentioned it’s in his occasion’s “DNA to be against the two-child limit”, as he supported the Government’s plans to take away what he known as a “Dickensian policy of judging families”.

Tory former minister Sir Desmond Swayne urged scrapping the coverage was extra about saving Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, however Mr McFadden mentioned Labour’s first job when the occasion took workplace had been to “stabilise the economy after the irresponsibility and chaos of the Tory years”.

He mentioned Ms Reeves, who sat behind him in the course of the debate, had set out how scrapping the coverage “can only be done now and can only be funded through a combination of savings from fraud and error in the benefit system, changes to the Motability scheme and reform of online gambling taxation”.

Around 400,000 fewer kids will likely be dwelling in poverty this April in contrast with 12 months earlier on account of the change, based on evaluation by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) mentioned the transfer will value £3 billion a 12 months by 2029/30.

The Government has mentioned that scrapping the two-child restrict alongside different measures in its wider technique to deal with youngster poverty will elevate 550,000 kids out of poverty by 2030, which it hailed as the most important discount in a single parliament since data started.