Sefton Council Fights Poverty: Calls to Lift Two-Child Benefit Limit

Sefton Council will call on Central Government to remove the national two-child benefit cap.

At a meeting of Full Council on Thursday September 14th the motion was agreed by a majority vote and sees Sefton Council join other local authorities in calling for the cap to be removed.

Data provided by the House of Commons shows that by removing the cap, more than 270,000 families in the UK would be taken out of poverty.

Sefton Council’s Chief Executive Phil Porter will now write to the Chancellor to set out Sefton’s position as well as draw attention to the Local Authority’s robust Child Poverty Strategy.

Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, said: “The removal of the two-child benefit cap is something we are only too happy to champion.

“Poverty in childhood can have hugely negative effects on people later in life and research clearly shows that those who are born into poverty are proportionally more likely to face a series of unfair socioeconomic challenges as they age.

“We’re calling on the Government to do the right thing and scrap the cap, as well as sharing with them our detailed and in-depth Sefton Child Poverty Strategy which highlights both the challenges we face and the efforts we’re taking to tackle these issues at a Borough level.”

Cllr Gareth Lloyd Johnson moved the motion before Council and said he was proud to have backing from his colleagues

Cllr Lloyd Johnson said: “‘It is clear from the support this motion received that the vast majority of Sefton councillors believe that the two-child cap is wrong.

“The levels of poverty within our borough are deeply worrying, particularly amongst children and young people.

“It is my hope that no child born in Sefton suffers poverty as the direct result of Government policy.”