Two-child benefit cap scrapped by Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Two-child benefit cap scrapped by Chancellor Rachel Reeves Alex Daniel Alex Daniel Published November 26, 2025 12:41pm Updated November 26, 2025 12:51pm Share this article via whatsappShare this article via xCopy the link to this article.Link is copiedShare this article via facebook Comment now Comments Charities praised the move to lift the two-child benefit cap on Wednesday

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has got rid of the controversial two-child benefit cap as part of a slew of spending changes in the Autumn budget.

The policy will result in an estimated reduction of child poverty by 450,000 by 2029/30, the Government’s independent spending watchdog said.

However it will also cost about £3billion at the end of this Parliament, the Office for Budget Responsibility said in a leaked report before the Budget was announced.

The Government had been under pressure from anti-poverty campaigners and many Labour MPs to end the policy that was brought in under the Conservatives.

The two-child limit came into effect in 2017, meaning most households only get child tax credit and universal credit for their first two children.

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Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had both made suggestions in the lead-up to the budget that the cap would come to an end.

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The OBR document said the Government had ‘removed the two-child limit within UC from April 2026’.

Removing the cap will cost £3billion by 2029-30, but child poverty charities have argued that 109 children across the country and pushed into poverty every day as a result of the policy.

Helen Barnard, director of policy at foodbank network Trussell, described it as a ‘bold step which will protect hundreds of thousands of children from growing up facing hunger and hardship’, and said the Chancellor had ‘listened to the families and foodbanks across the UK who have been imploring her to act’.

Unicef UK said it is a ‘major, necessary decision to tackle record levels of child poverty in the UK’, adding: ‘No child should be punished for the number of siblings they have.’

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