Calls on the government to scrap controversial policy

Former Prime Minister and Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown has put pressure on the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap, describing rising child poverty in the UK as a ‘cancer in our society’.

The controversial policy introduced by the Conservative government means that families are only eligible for means tested support, provided by Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit, for the first two-children in the household – with a few exemptions including for multiple births. It applies to children across the UK born after April 6, 2017.

Mr Brown has called on current Chancellor Rachel Reeves to increase gambling taxes in the autumn Budget, claiming that the gambling industry is undertaxed.  He is backing a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank which calls for various UK gambling taxes to be increased to raise around £3.2bn extra per year to pay for the removal of the two-child benefit limit.

The IPPR believe gambling taxation is an area ripe for reform as it is exempt from Value Added Tax, so is more lightly taxed than alcohol or tobacco.  Tax experts are uncertain whether it would be practically possible to raise an additional £3.2bn a year on top of what is already collected through existing levies, although some say such a sum is plausible.

Pressure on the Labour Chancellor is growing ahead of the Autumn budget. On coming into government last year, Labour ministers said they did not have the financial resources to lift the cap and that it was unaffordable to do so, but the issue has remained a source of division within the party. Experts and charities have warned that children are pulled into poverty every day by the policy.