The package of measures announced in the Government's Child
Poverty Strategy – including the abolition of the two-child limit
on benefit support and an expanded Free School Meals offer – will
result in child poverty rates falling in 2026-27, the first time
in nine years (outside the pandemic), the Resolution Foundation
said today (Friday).
The Foundation estimates that policies in the strategy will lift
more than half a million children out of poverty by 2029-30 than
would otherwise be the case without those policies. It estimates
425,000 fewer children living in poverty by 2029-30 from the
lifting of the two-child limit and a further 80,0000 from the
expansion of Free School Meals.
But although the welcome announcements in today's Child Poverty
Strategy – including greater support for families living in
temporary accommodation and expanded childcare for parents on
Universal Credit – begin to turn the tide on child poverty, they
are still working against other economic forces and policy
choices that, in the Strategy's absence, would serve to drive up
child poverty over the Parliament.
For example, the freeze in rates of Local Housing Allowance will
continue to affect the 1.7 million children living in poor
households in the private rented sector.
Overall, taking the measures announced in the Child Poverty
Strategy and the latest economic data together, the Foundation
forecasts that the rate of child poverty will fall by 1
percentage point, from 32 per cent in 2024-25 to 31 per cent in
2029-30 – equivalent to 300,000 fewer children growing up in
poverty by the end of the Parliament.
Lindsay Judge, Research Director at the Resolution
Foundation, said:
“The Government deserve credit for beginning to turn the tide on
child poverty and getting rates falling for first time in nine
years (outside of the pandemic). This Strategy should be
celebrated for setting out a plan to lift hundreds of thousands
of children out of poverty over the course of the Parliament.
“We have long-called for the abolition of the two-child limit
which unfairly penalises larger families, the vast majority of
whom are in work, have very young children, or disabilities in
the family. Repealing it is the right decision, and the
Government should be praised for doing so despite fiscal
constraints.
“But other child poverty headwinds remain, not least the
continued freeze in L
