In the hours after Keir Starmer’s partial U-turn on the winter fuel allowance, there was much speculation about whether it would lead to other benefit cuts being reversed. As Labour announced it would change tack on support for pensioners, would the government still vote to cut disabled people’s personal independence payments next month? If the economy is improving and Starmer wants to “make sure people feel those improvements”, would the upcoming child poverty plan see the two-child benefit limit finally abolished?
Perhaps. As was leaked quietly to the media last Friday, it appears the government isn’t bumping up its flagship child poverty strategy – it’s delaying it. After 14 years of Conservative austerity and rising prices, more than one in three children now live in poverty in the UK – the highest level this century. Ministers are due to announce a package of up to £750m to tackle this crisis in June, but any new measures have reportedly been pushed back until at least the autumn. As one source said of the reluctance of Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney to scrap the two-child limit: “He doesn’t think they would be getting enough political capital with voters as a result of the money they would have to put in.”
