Work to reduce child poverty involves more than scrapping the two-child cap on benefits, Angela Rayner has insisted.
Speaking on a visit to Glasgow, the Deputy Prime Minister hit out at the Scottish Government’s plans to counter the policy which only allows certain benefits to be claimed for up to two children.
The two-child limit has regularly been criticised by opposition politicians, including by Labour – with Rayner previously describing the cap as “obscene”.
While UK ministers have acknowledged a desire to scrap the policy, worries over the country’s finances have so far stopped them from doing so.
In December, the Scottish Government announced plans to mitigate the cap, with planning work due to take place this year with a view to a new benefit or other form of mitigation to be put in place in 2026.
Speaking alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar today, Rayner said: “(The Scottish Government have) said, without any means of funding, that they’re going to do that.
“A chronic housing crisis adds to poverty, people in insecure work, zero-hour contracts, chronic low pay adds to child poverty.
“It’s not just one lever, there’s a number of levers that we have to pull to alleviate child poverty, and we’re determined to do it.
“Not one little slogan and think ‘we’ve fixed it’, actually there’s a number of things that we have to do to deliver real change for the children that are in child poverty at the moment and that’s why we’ve committed to a taskforce.”
Sarwar said: “The SNP is talking about getting rid of the two-child limit, but it’s actually not in this year’s Budget.”
He said the Scottish Government is “pretending” it is planning on mitigating the two-child cap.
He added: “If they’re serious about challenging poverty, they have to address work and they have to address housing as well as education, health justice and all those other areas which they have complete control over and are failing Scotland’s children.”
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