Two-child limit update
It has been one year since the two-child limit came into force and certain benefits becoming restricted to the first two children in a family.
According to the End Child Poverty coalition, in the last year around 160,000 families are now £2,780 a year worse off due to the limit.
By 2025, this policy will affect three million children.
The UK is unique in having a two-child limit that restricts support to the first two children. The majority of developed countries offer extra support to subsequent children, not less.
The policy is expected to push hundreds of thousands of families into poverty in the coming years.
Campaigners and religious leaders have also said that the policy conveys the message that some children matter less than others, depending on their place in the sibling birth order.
Since the introduction of the two-child limit, pregnant women have contacted us with questions about their benefits, stating that the answers will help them decide to continue with the pregnancy or terminate it.
If the policy remains in place, by 2022 over half of children in families with three or more children are forecast to be in poverty.
Pritie Billimoria, Head of Communications at Turn2us, said: “A third child is worth no more or no less than a first or second born.
“No parent can see into the future. Parents may be able to comfortably support a third child today but may be a bereavement, divorce or redundancy away from needing state help.
“We need to see children protected from growing up in poverty in the UK."
There are some exceptions from the two-child limit.