The growing disease of child poverty in the UK and Labour's big lever they can pull to halt it
No early years strategy is credible unless it tackles child poverty head-on.
When Labour swept into office it promised to tear down the barriers that hold children back, champion opportunity, tackle entrenched disadvantage, and fix Britain’s fractured early years system.
“The last Labour government lifted over half a million children and over a million pensioners out of poverty,” Keir Starmer’s 2024 manifesto read. “That progress transformed life chances and ensured security in retirement. The next Labour government will build on that legacy of pursuing opportunity and social justice.”
But this week, England’s children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, has sounded the alarm. In a report commissioned by the government itself, she described children growing up in “Dickensian” conditions: going to school hungry, unable to wash their clothes, living in homes infested with vermin. In one heart-breaking admission, Dame Rachel disclosed that one child had told her he couldn’t invite friends round because rats had bitten his face in the night.
These are not rare exceptions or fringe cases. 4.2 million children in the UK are growing up in poverty. School staff say they have increasingly less time for their duties due to having to deal with the impact of poverty on their students. The NHS has been warning about the return of diseases caused by malnutrition, such as rickets and scurvy.
“Scrapping the two-child benefit cap would give families breathing room and children dignity to begin their learning process with a clear head, full stomach and without the stress and trauma of poverty.”
According to the Department for Work and Pensions, 1.6 million children live in households affected by the two-child benefit cap – a policy that limits financial support for third or subsequent children born after April 2017. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that scrapping the cap would lift half a million children out of relative poverty overnight.
While Dame Rachel acknowledges there is no easy solution to eradicating child poverty once and for all, she is clear that any action produced by this government must be built on the foundation of scrapping the two-child limit. The report concludes: “Removing the two-child limit is the most cost-effective way to lift children out of poverty, as 30 per cent of children in poverty currently are affected by it.”
And yet, Labour, the party that claims to be committed to improving early years opportunities, is hesitating. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson says ministers are “looking at every lever” to lift children out of poverty. But when asked directly about the cap, she refused to commit to lifting it due to budget constraints, created – she implied – by her own backbenchers, who refused to support the government’s planned disability benefit cuts.
If Labour is serious about opportunity, this is the test. The new government has made the right noises, and some welcome moves, including a renewed focus on breakfast clubs, expanding free school meals and early childhood support. But it cannot dodge the fundamental truth: no early years strategy is credible unless it tackles child poverty head-on.
What use is a parenting class or speech and language session if a child is going to bed cold, hungry, and fearful?
Structural poverty undermines every single one of Labour’s early years' ambitions: levelling the playing field is ineffectual if some children are starting life at the bottom of a sinkhole.
Scrapping the two-child benefit cap would be an immediate, transformative step, welcomed by campaigners, families and MPs across the political spectrum. It would give families breathing room and children dignity to begin their learning process with a clear head, full stomach and without the stress and trauma of poverty. And it would signal that Labour truly understands that opportunity is not just a slogan, but a promise that must begin with security, dignity, and a fair start in life.■
About the author: Zoë Grünewald is Westminster Editor at The Lead and a freelance political journalist and broadcaster. Zoë then worked as a policy and politics reporter at the New Statesman, before joining the Independent as a political correspondent. When not writing about politics and policy, she is a regular commentator on TV and radio and a panellist on the Oh God What Now podcast.
This piece is part of The Lead Says, bringing you insightful writing on people, place and policy. At The Lead we’ve been calling for the two-child benefit cap to go since before last year’s Autumn budget, we know the impact it can make from Blackpool to Barnet in helping families. And it’s not just the two-child benefit cap, Kevin Gopal visited Blackpool earlier this year to hear the impact lifting the household benefit cap would also make on those who need help the most. Plus how we’ve implored Labour not to get distracted by global events and to keep delivering on the domestic front for our future generations. Support our independent journalism and insightful writing on people, place and policy affecting the UK right now with a paid subscription.