Two-child limit on UK welfare benefits ‘has failed to push parents into jobs’

Penalising families because parents prioritise looking after children ‘appears to be ineffective at best’ in moving parents into work, the report says. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

The UK’s controversial two-child benefit limit, which restricts welfare payments to larger families in an attempt to force parents to find work, has failed to increase employment levels – but it has left hundreds of thousands of households in poverty, according to the first study of its kind.

The government introduced the two-child limit in 2017, arguing that removing eligibility for benefits worth £3,000 a year per child for a family’s third and subsequent children would “incentivise” parents to move into work, or work more hours to make up the difference.