There are more levers which could be used to tackle child poverty than scrapping the two-child benefit cap, the Deputy Prime Minister has said as the Scottish Government seeks to mitigate it.
During a visit to Scotland, Angela Rayner 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 Ms Rayner previously describing the cap as “obscene” – ahead of the election last year which saw the party sweep to power.
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.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was joined by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar for part of her visit to Glasgow (Jane Barlow/PA)
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 to the PA news agency alongside Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar on Thursday in Glasgow, Ms 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.”
Mr 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.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar questioned the Scottish Government plans (Andrew Milligan/PA)
His comments come just days after he announced his party will abstain in the final vote on the Scottish Government’s Budget, effectively giving it the green light and reversing course from previous statements criticising the plans.
Mr Sarwar said the Labour group in Holyrood would actively back the Budget if the mitigation to the cap could be in place in April of this year, a deadline the Scottish Government sees as being extremely unlikely.
It remains unclear what form such a mitigation would take, with Scottish ministers yet to receive the necessary data from the Department for Work and Pensions to begin work, but there has been no hint that Westminster would seek to stymy attempts north of the border to scrap the limit.
The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.