CHC responds to Department for Work and Pensions announcement

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced plans to abandon a benefits limit on families with more than two children, born before the system was introduced in April 2017.

There are currently 68,000 claimants of Universal Credit in Wales, a third of these claimants have children. The two child limit on Child Tax Credits and the Child Element of Universal Credit came in to force in April 2017 for families with third or subsequent children born after this date.

Last summer, CHC came together with partner federations the National Housing Federation, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and the Northern Irish Federation of Housing Associations, to call on Government to change fundamental flaws with Universal Credit, including the scrapping of the ‘two child policy’.

Will Atkinson, Policy and Programmes Manager says: “Though we welcome the announcement by the work and pensions secretary to abandon the extension of the two child limit to families of more than two children born before April 2017, we urge Government to extend this to all other families too. The two child limit is a key driver of child poverty. With close to one in three Welsh children living in poverty, we will continue working with partner federations to tackle these issues on behalf of tenants who are being pushed into poverty by the two child policy.”