Beyond the Two-Child Limit: Why the UK must invest in every child

A Response to the UN CESCR’s Report on Child Poverty in the UK

"In low- and middle-income countries, there is an urgent need to ensure that all residents and children should have access to at least a social protection floor"

ILO, World Social Protection Report, 2024-26

This call from the International Labour Organization (ILO) underscores a fundamental truth: social protection is a fundamental human right. However, too often, conversations about poverty and social protection focus outward, examining the challenges faced by low- and middle-income countries while neglecting the failures within wealthy nations like the UK. This external focus is not accidental; it reflects a deeply entrenched, colonial mindset—one that assumes poverty and inadequate social protection are problems of the Global South while positioning wealthier nations as benevolent actors, offering aid and expertise rather than critically assessing their own systems. In reality, the UK prides itself on global leadership in development and human rights, yet it is failing failing to ensure even the most basic economic security for its own children.

The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) concluding has issued a a damning assessment of the UK’s failure to uphold basic economic and social rights, including the right to social security and an adequate standard of living. The report explicitly criticises the two-child benefit limit, stating that it has eroded essential protections for children and disproportionately harmed already disadvantaged families. The CESCR has urged the UK to reverse harmful welfare reforms, including the two-child limit, the benefit cap, and the five-week delay in Universal Credit payments, all of which have contributed to increased reliance on food banks, homelessness, and deteriorating mental health.

A December 2023 report from UNICEF further reinforces these concerns, ranking the UK among the worst-performing high-income countries for tackling child poverty. Among 42 high- and upper-middle-income peer nations, the UK—along with France, Türkiye, and Colombia—was placed at the bottom of the rankings. The assessment was based on two critical indicators: rates of child income poverty between 2019 and 2021, and the proportional increase in child poverty over a seven-year period (2012–2014 and 2019–2021). This international comparison makes it clear: the UK is not just failing by its own standards - it is failing on the global stage.

This blog stands in response to the UN CESCR’s findings, making the case not just for the removal of the two-child limit, but for a bold and transformative shift - towards universal child benefits that guarantee no child is left behind.

Time to Look Inward: The UK’s Responsibility to Its Children

Too often, discussions on social protection focus on low- and middle-income countries, while little introspection is applied to the UK’s own policies. Yet despite its economic strength, the UK is grappling with a growing child poverty crisis. The government has signed international human rights agreements, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which recognises every child’s right to an adequate standard of living. However, the two-child limit directly contradicts these commitments, making it harder for families to provide the essentials children need to thrive.​

Globally, social protection remains elusive for the vast majority of children. For children aged 0 to 18, just 23.9 per cent receive a family or child benefit, meaning 1.8 billion children are not covered, leaving them vulnerable to to missed education, poor nutrition, pervasive cycles of poverty and inequality, and exposing them to long-lasting impacts on their well-being and development. Child benefits are not just a welfare measure; they are a fundamental tool for securing children’s long-term well-being, ensuring basic income security for children, ensuring access to nutrition, education, care and other necessary goods and services.

The Impact of the Two-Child Limit

The two-child benefit cap is more than a misguided policy—it is an attack on children’s rights and family well-being.  According to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG):​

"Every single day, the two-child limit pulls another 109 children into poverty"

Additionally, CPAG has found that over 1.5 million children are affected by the policy, with more than 400,000 families receiving reduced support.​ The average loss per family amounts to approximately £3,000 per year.​

The UN CESCR’s findings reinforce the bleak reality: this policy is not just widening economic disparities – it is entrenching them. Families from ethnic minority backgrounds and single-parent households are bearing the brunt of the cuts, exacerbating cycles of exclusion and hardship. In 2022/23, a staggering 4.3 million children - 30% of all children in the UK - were living in relative poverty after housing costs. Instead of alleviating financial hardship, the two-child limit forces families further into deprivation, increasing reliance on food banks and emergency assistance—both of which were originally intended as short-term safety nets for sudden income shocks, such as job loss or unexpected expenses like a broken appliance. However, in practice, due to inadequate social protection, many families are unable to access the timely support they need. As a result, food banks are now bearing the brunt of chronic poverty, forced to meet the ongoing basic needs of families who should be receiving adequate state support.

This policy does not just worsen existing inequalities, it actively pushes more families into poverty, stripping them of the ability to cope with economic shocks. The death of a breadwinner, an unexpected illness, or a crisis like COVID-19 can quickly spiral into catastrophe for families already struggling to make ends meet. Without a financial cushion, many households find themselves unable to absorb these shocks, forcing them into negative coping mechanisms such as taking on high-interest debt, skip meals, or sacrifice essential bills. The reality is that, the two-child limit has left thousands of families without a safety net, ensuring that one unexpected crisis can push them into a downward spiral from which recovery is near impossible.

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has condemned this policy in no uncertain terms, declaring that it:

• Violates fundamental children’s rights.

• Discriminates against larger families, particularly those from minority communities.

• Perpetuates generational poverty, locking families into long-term financial distress.

The consequences of these policies are clear—they are felt in the empty stomachs of hungry children, in the stress of parents skipping meals to feed their families, and in the struggles of young people who cannot focus in school because they are too cold or too hungry to learn. The UN CESCR's findings detail how these families are being abandoned, forced to rely on food banks, emergency shelters, and high-interest loans simply to survive. This is not just a policy failure—it is a moral failure.

The UN CESCR has made clear recommendations: the UK must reverse these welfare cuts and conduct an independent review of austerity policies since 2010 to assess their cumulative impact on poverty and inequality.

Why Universal Child Benefits?

Scrapping the two-child limit is an essential first step, but it is not enough. If the UK is to truly uphold its commitments to human rights and child welfare, it must go further by implementing a universal child benefit system. Evidence from countries with strong social protection policies—such as Sweden, Finland, and Canada—demonstrates that universal child benefits can:​

1. Directly Reduce Child Poverty – Ensuring every child receives financial support helps break the cycle of deprivation, lifting families out of poverty and improving long-term outcomes.​

2. Support Economic Growth – Putting money into the hands of families boosts household spending, stimulates local economies, and creates jobs.​

3. Improve Child Development – When families have the resources to provide nutritious food, stable housing, and access to education, children thrive physically, mentally, and socially.​

4. Enhance Gender Equality – Child benefits provide crucial financial support to caregivers, particularly women, helping to reduce gendered economic disparities.

5. Ends the Bureaucratic Nightmare of Means-Testing– Means-tested benefits are often complex, exclusionary, leaving many families excluded due to administrative errors or complex eligibility criteria. They are also expensive to administer. A universal system, on the other hand, removes unnecessary bureaucracy, ensuring that no child falls through the cracks.

A Call to Action: The UK Must Choose a Different Path

The UK is at a crossroads. It can continue down the path of austerity-driven policies that punish the most vulnerable, or it can embrace a future in which every child is valued and protected. The UN CESCR’s findings are not just a warning—it is a wake-up call. The cost of universal child benefits is insignificant compared to the human and economic toll of poverty. A failure to act now will not only harm millions of children today, but will leave a legacy of inequality for generations to come.

A just society does not ask children to pay the price for political decisions. It does not turn its back on struggling families while claiming to champion human rights. It does not allow millions to go hungry while wealth accumulates at the top. The UK government has the power—and the responsibility—to change course. By committing to universal child benefits, we can create a future where every child has an equal start, where no family is punished for having more than two children, and where our nation truly upholds the principles of dignity, fairness, and justice.

The time for universal child benefits is not just now—it is long overdue. The question is not whether we can afford to invest in our children. The question is: how can we afford not to?