Southport Lib Dems Call to Scrap Two-Child Universal Credit Cap

Southport Lib Dems have launched a petition calling on the new government to immediately scrap the two-child universal credit cap. The Liberal Democrats have said  they would immediately scrap the two-child policy with explicit commitments to reform Universal Credit such as reducing the waiting time for the first payment from five weeks to five days.

The two-child cap, which was introduced in 2017 by the Tories, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. It means many working families cannot claim about £3,200 a year per extra child. This also disproportionately affects single parent families and families with disabled children. The Labour party have said they would not reverse it.

Figures from action for children, show that in Southport over 4,700 children are living in poverty.

Southport Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, Erin Harvey commented: “We hear a lot of rhetoric from the Labour party around how they are the only party that will combat UK poverty, but it’s not backed up by pledges to act. It’s clear the two-child cap brought in by the Tories is causing many families with children to suffer, potentially driving many to foodbanks. A reversal of this could be done quickly and it would be the cheapest and easiest way to help lift these families out of poverty, yet Labour won’t commit to do this and the Lib Dems are the only main party that will.”

“Labour run Sefton Council’s children’s services were rated as inadequate in 2022. It’s even more imperative that everything is done to help struggling families in our area. If elected as your MP, fighting for a fairer deal for families would be a key priority for me. The two-child cap is a cruel and unnecessary policy that unfairly impacts children”

You can sign the petition here