Letter to PM urging an end to the two-child limit

Aberlour has sent the following letter to the Prime Minister, the Right Hon Sir Keir Starmer MP,  urging him to commit to ending the cruel and unnecessary two child limit.

Dear Prime Minister

I am writing to you to offer warmest congratulations from everyone at Aberlour on becoming Prime Minister. I believe we share the same values of equality and social justice and the ambition to see an end to child poverty. I am sure you and your government will work hard to realise and embed these values for the benefit of children, young people and families across the UK.

To that end I urge that you commit to end the cruel and unnecessary two-child limit. Our children and young people at Aberlour made it clear ahead of the election that their priority is ending child poverty. The fact is they have waited long enough for governments at Westminster and Holyrood to prioritise tackling child poverty.

An entire generation of children has been affected by the damage done by austerity. This has had a profound impact on the levels of disadvantage we see at Aberlour every day within the families we work with and the communities we serve. Children cannot wait any longer for real and meaningful action.

Every day we work with families impacted by the two-child limit. This results in families making impossible choices of whether to put food on the table, pay their energy bills or provide adequate clothing for their children. This puts a massive stress on families and contributes to negative impacts on educational attainment and on children’s physical and emotional health and wellbeing.

Tackling child poverty is the first and most important thing any government must do to if it wants to create a fairer and more equal society. But it cannot be done without investment. I appreciate there are constraints on public finances, and I know you have difficult decisions to make about how you prioritise limited resources amid a challenging financial landscape.

Nonetheless, I urge you to accept that the financial saving of maintaining the two-child limit will only result in a longer term cost to society due to poorer outcomes for children as a result of the poverty and wider experiences of adversity it perpetuates.

Ending child poverty will not be achieved overnight. But abolishing the two-child limit would immediately lift three hundred thousand children across the UK out of poverty. This would be a good start. This would also clearly signal your intention to do the best for our poorest children and families.

We know that more money in people’s pockets means more money in local economies. It is not a binary choice between ending poverty or driving growth. I believe we can do both at the same time. Ultimately, investment in social security and tackling child poverty is an investment in our communities, in our citizens, in our children and in our shared future.

After a decade and a half of austerity, now is the time to make the bold and necessary political choices that will improve the lives of struggling families and help the 4.3 million children across the UK who are currently living in poverty.

I believe this must begin by bringing an end to the cruel two-child limit.

I look forward to working with you and your government to make sure we end child poverty for good.

With best wishes,

SallyAnn Kelly OBE

Chief Executive

CC: Rachel Reeves