Rachel Reeves to lift two-child benefit cap in November budget

Rachel Reeves watches Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour conference. She said she expects to respond to the child poverty taskforce findings in November. Photograph: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock

Rachel Reeves is to lift the two-child benefit limit in the budget, a key demand of Labour MPs and child poverty campaigners, with officials exploring options of a tapered system instead.

The chancellor and Keir Starmer have said they expect to respond to recommendations of the child poverty taskforce at the budget, which is expected to say that lifting the two-child limit for universal credit and child tax credit would be one of the most effective ways to lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty.