62,000 children from the north-east of the country have suffered due to the policy

Since the introduction of the two-child limit in April 2017, it has meant that almost all families with a third or further child – whether working or not – are no longer eligible for support for those children through Universal Credit or Child Tax Credits. As a result, younger children lose out on up to £66 a week of support that their older siblings receive.

Updated figures from the Department for Work and Pensions confirm that – in April 2024 – some 19,000 North East families will be covered by the two-child limit, with just over 13,000 living in the North East Combined Authority area and almost 6,000 in the Tees Valley. This is up from 17,550 households across the region the previous year.

And – according to analysis by the North East Child Poverty Commission (NECPC) – new figures show that around 62,000 babies, children and young people across the region currently live in families covered by the policy.

Fighting child poverty

It has previously been calculated that removing the two-child limit would be the most effective way for the Government to tackle child poverty – it would lift 300,000 children out of poverty and mean a further 800,000 children in the UK would live less in poverty.

Recently published analysis by the End Child Poverty Coalition and NECPC highlighted an ‘extraordinarily high’ correlation between constituencies with the highest rates of child poverty and those with the highest proportion of children affected by the two-child limit, including our own. The North East Child Poverty Commission has long campaigned for the policy to be abolished, most recently during the general election campaign.

Today’s figures also confirm that the two-child limit now applies to 440,000 families nationwide – including some 1.6 million children – with 59% of families covered by the policy nationwide working.

North East Child Poverty Commission Chairwoman Beth Farhat said:

“We welcome the new Government’s commitment to an ambitious national strategy to tackle child poverty. This is desperately needed and must recognise the importance of investing more of our nation’s wealth in children and families now, so they can access opportunities today and in the future.

“It also needs to be evidence-based, and it is becoming increasingly clear that there is no way to end child poverty – either in the North East or across the UK – that does not involve removing the two-child limit.

“The new Government must make this a priority if its plan to tackle child poverty is to deliver the significant response that the tens of thousands of children currently growing up in the North East need.”

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