‘This is a transformative victory for children’

“I came into politics because I believe every child has equal worth”, said the Chancellor today as she brought an end to the two-child limit, righting an historic wrong that has dragged hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.

On budget day we’re used to hearing the economic arguments, and indeed we’ve made many of those arguments on this page before. Scrapping the two-child limit is the most cost-effective way to lift kids out of poverty. Doing so will reduce pressure on public services like schools and hospitals in both the short and longer term. Money that goes to families through the social security system will get spent, supporting local economies. Sustainable growth can’t be built on record levels of poverty – and if we want to grow the economy, we need to lift children out of poverty now.

There are political arguments too. With the policy pulling another 109 kids into poverty every single day there would be no way for the government to meet its manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty within this parliament without scrapping the two-child limit first. And with the Prime Minister vowing that tackling child poverty was his moral mission, the path to scrapping the limit was set a long time ago.

On budget day we sometimes even have time to get into discussion of policy. The majority of kids affected by the limit are in working households, and the majority of those households have three children.  Parents affected include nurses, care workers and teaching assistants. There’s no way to get rid of the pernicious rape clause without scrapping the policy in full.

But the truth is, budgets are about people, and in this case kids.  And all kids deserve the best start in life. No matter how many brothers and sisters they have, no matter what jobs their parents have, or if someone in their household has a disability. They all deserve a good childhood – not just because it will set them up for a stronger future, although that counts too. But because they’re kids. They don’t deserve to be cold, or hungry, or to live in a cramped damp house. They don’t deserve to worry about what subjects to take at school because of the cost that comes with them, or to feel anxious because they know they can’t afford to hang out with their friends when the day comes to an end.

Children don’t deserve to grow up in poverty lifting them out of that poverty is the right thing to do.

There are currently almost 1.7 million children affected by the two-child limit, and today’s decision will be transformational for them and their families. Even on its own, that’s worth celebrating.

But the decision also is the opportunity to have a fresh start in the UK’s approach to tackling poverty. Child poverty in the UK is the highest it has ever been, and make no mistake there is much more left to do. We know it takes commitment, we know it takes determination. But as a country we have significantly reduced child poverty before, and today marks the moment when we can start to do it again.

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