Religious leaders from across a variety of faiths have called on the government to scrap the two-child limit on benefits amidst claims that the policy will lead to a rise in poverty.
The two-child policy was introduced a year ago and allows families to claim child tax credit or universal credits, but only for their first two children, unless there are special circumstances. This week, Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in the UK have joined forces to call for the policy to be scrapped, claiming that it will lead to a rise in child poverty and abortions. They say the policy would disproportionately affect families in their faith groups, some of whom have large numbers of children. Over 60 religious leaders have signed an open letter to the Government in national press outlining their concerns.
This isn’t the first time the policy has seen groups protest against it. last year the Child Poverty Action Group launched a legal challenge to the policy stating that it was a breach in human rights and discriminatory and back in 2015, when the policy was first proposed, a coalition of faith leaders said it was fundamentally ‘anti family’.
The Department for Work and Pensions has said the policy will be implemented compassionately, with exceptions and safeguards. However, it insisted that people on benefits should have to “make the same financial choices as those supporting themselves solely through work”. Exceptions are made to the policy for multiple births, adoption from local authority care, kinship care and children likely to have been conceived as a result of rape or a coercive or controlling relationship.
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