Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has called on the government to abolish the two-child limit on benefits, describing rising poverty levels as something that 'would make Charles Dickens furious'. In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Lord Kinnock also proposed a wealth tax to help fund the change.
The two-child cap, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, restricts benefit payments to the first two children in most households. Lord Kinnock acknowledged the government might not be able to scrap it 'all at once' but urged progress, noting that ending the cap could lift around 600,000 children out of poverty.
He suggested the move could be financed by a tax on the wealthiest 1%, adding: 'I know it’s the economics of Robin Hood, but I don’t think there is anything terribly bad about that.' The peer also criticised the previous Conservative government for allowing child poverty to rise over 15 years.
His remarks follow similar calls from former prime minister Gordon Brown, who recently argued that scrapping the two-child limit and the benefit cap would be among the most effective anti-poverty measures. Official data from April showed nearly 1.7 million children living in households affected by the cap, a rise of 37,000 in a year.
A government spokesperson responded by stating that the administration is reforming the social security system to help people into well-paid jobs, and that a child poverty taskforce will publish a strategy later this year to address the structural causes of poverty.
