LABOUR’S proposed benefits cuts will take child poverty to levels not seen for nearly 30 years, experts have warned.
The Resolution Foundation said that plans to slash the welfare budget by £3 billion would take the level of child poverty from 31% to 33% by 2030, the highest rate since 1998 and the highest number on record at 4.6 million.
In a new briefing the anti-poverty think tank said that child poverty levels would rise based on Labour’s proposed cuts and the ongoing impact of policies including the two-child benefit cap.
And while the report said Labour were “right to be ambitious about employment rates and housing supply”, child poverty would still rise without changes to social security policy.
It added: “The child poverty priority should be to abolish the two-child limit, and the benefit cap alongside it, which would take an estimated 500,000 children out of poverty in 2029-30.
“This would cost £4.5bn in 2029-30 but is the most efficient anti-poverty measure the Government could take. Turning the two-child limit into a three-child limit (and assuming the benefit cap is still abolished) would have about two-thirds of the impact at two-thirds of the cost.”
An “ambitious” programme to bring child poverty 27%, which would be the lowest level in 40 years, would cost £8.5bn, according to the Resolution Foundation.
This would see free school meals given to all families on Universal Credit, repegging Local Housing Allowance to “local rents” rather than being frozen and reversing the abolition of the “family element” in Universal Credit.
With this, the Government could reduce the number of children in poverty to 3.7m, the think tank said.
The report added: “In the longer-term, family benefit uprating needs to move to tracking average earnings – alongside the state pension – or else relative child poverty will always tend to rise as social security entitlements fall behind average earnings.”
Kirsty Blackman (below), the SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson, said: “It's utterly shameful that UK child poverty is heading to the highest levels on record as a direct result of the Labour Party's inaction and failure.
"Voters were promised things would get better but under Keir Starmer they are getting worse. The cost of energy, food and living is rising, unemployment is increasing, the UK economy is stagnating – and thousands more children are being pushed into poverty because of Labour Party welfare cuts.
"Keir Starmer must get his finger out and take emergency action now to reduce poverty, including by immediately scrapping the Labour Party's two-child benefit cap, the bedroom tax and its planned £3bn of welfare cuts.”
She said that scrapping the two-child cap would be “only the first step”, adding that ending the policy was “nowhere near enough on its own”.
Blackman added: “The Prime Minister must follow Scotland's lead and match the SNP's Scottish Child Payment UK-wide, which would lift a million children out of poverty.
"As a result of the SNP Government's leadership, Scotland is the only part of the UK where child poverty is expected to fall but UK Government policies are still pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: "No child should be in poverty – that’s why our ministerial taskforce is exploring all available levers to give every child the best start in life as part of our plan for change.
“As we fix the foundations of the economy, we’re increasing the living wage, uprating benefits and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a fair repayment rate on Universal Credit deductions to help low-income households and make everyone better off.”
