More than 80,000 Scots children affected by 'cruel' two-child cap on benefits in last year

dailyrecord.co.uk:

More than 80,000 children in Scotland have been affected by the "cruel" two-child cap on benefits in the last year. Analysis by the House of Commons Library also found that an additional 20,000 Scots youngsters were placed into poverty as a result of the Tory policy, which was introduced in 2017.It comes as Keir Starmer faces pressure to commit to scrapping the two-child benefit cap if Labour win power at the next General Election.

He faced a backlash from several Scottish Labour MSPs after he used a BBC interview last week to rule out the abolition of the cap.The research for the SNP used the policy simulation tool UKMOD to estimate the effect of the policy since 2017.

If the policy was to be removed, about 30,000 fewer people would be in poverty in Scotland, including 20,000 children.In Scotland, during the 2022/23 financial year, a total of 80,936 children live in households where the two-child cap has reduced benefits.

It has been applied to a total of 32,616 children. Since 2017, when the cap came into force, the cap has cost families in Scotland £341.3 million.SNP MP Kirsten Oswald said: “The cruel, Tory, two-child cap has been one of the leading causes of poverty in the UK – and if Keir Starmer continues to impose it, the pro-Brexit Labour Party will be directly responsible for pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty.“There must be an immediate U-turn.