United calls for government to scrap ‘harmful’ two-child benefit cap
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During yesterday’s (May 23) full council meeting, leader of the Barnsley Lib Dem group Hannah Kitching called on the government to scrap its policy of only allowing families to claim child tax credit for two children.
In 2017, the Conservative government’s two-child benefit cap was introduced to encourage parents into work.
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Hide AdThe amount families are given depends on their income, how many children are living with them and their childcare costs, and can receive up to £2,780 per year for each child.


The government said it had limited the funding to the first two children because it wanted “people on benefits to make the same choices as those supporting themselves solely through work”.
Figures show in Barnsley alone, 12 per cent of all children in the borough are affected by the limit.
Almost 30 per cent of children in the borough – 15,342 – are living in poverty.
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Hide AdCoun Kitching called upon all councillors in the chamber to agree to ask the chief executive to write to the Prime Minister, urging him to scrap the limit.
Coun Kitching told the meeting: “Our benefits system should exist as a safety net, not some kind of moral compass or set of rules.
“Yes, maybe people should plan to live within their means….but life can’t always be planned. Sometimes babies aren’t planned. Sometimes people lose their jobs…and the system should be there to catch them.
“The cost of living crisis has hit everyone really hard. And who has it hit the hardest? The most vulnerable in our society, those in poverty.”
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Hide AdLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would make such a change but that “we haven’t got the resources to do it at the moment”
The Lib Dem Leader added that a so-called ‘rape clause’ – which allowed women to claim for a third or subsequent child if they were conceived through a sexual act she ‘didn’t, or couldn’t consent to’ – was a ‘horrific element’ of the cap.
Councillor Caroline Makinson, Labour’s deputy leader of the council, agreed with the Lib Dem’s statement, adding that some councils are finding keeping children safe ‘nigh on impossible’.
“It would be wrong of us to tell government to prioritise expenditure for better benefits without also telling government that we need money for all the key services,” she said.
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Hide AdBMBC produced a balanced budget for this financial year, despite ‘significant demand’ on its finances.
Six local authorities have declared effective bankruptcy since 2021, owing to factors such as cuts to the funding they receive from central government, and increased demand on its statutory services such as social care and homelessness support.
Barnsley’s Labour group amended the motion to call on the government to provide better funding for children’s services local councils.