Prime Minister Keir Starmer has launched a comprehensive child poverty action plan, with the centrepiece being the lifting of the two-child benefit cap, announced in last week's budget. The policy, which takes effect from April, will allow families to receive welfare payments for more than two children, reversing a Tory measure introduced in 2017 that plunged over 1.7 million children into poverty.
With approximately 4.5 million children in the UK living in poverty in 2025, including two million in households unable to afford essentials like food, housing, and heating, Labour's commitment has been welcomed by parents, case workers, charities, and anti-poverty campaigners. The plan aims to lift 550,000 children out of poverty.
Additional measures include making it easier for Universal Credit recipients to access upfront childcare costs, an £8 million pledge to reduce the use of bed and breakfasts for families, and a new legal duty for councils to inform schools and doctors when a child moves into temporary accommodation. Mothers and newborns will no longer be discharged into unsuitable housing, following 58 infant deaths linked to poor temporary accommodation over the past five years.
Critics note the government has not set a binding or statutory target for poverty reduction. Starmer described the plan as a "moral mission" and the "single biggest initiative taken on child poverty from any government." However, a think tank warned of "considerable uncertainty" over the plan's impact due to economic factors, while researchers highlighted that many families still cannot access benefits at all.
