What is the government going to do about child poverty?

Following two prominent interventions on the subject, from former Labour PM Gordon Brown and – perhaps more surprisingly – Tory MP Suella Braverman, Sean O’Grady looks at the ways in which governments have attempted to address child poverty, and at what they might do about it now

Former prime minister Gordon Brown (left) has spoken of the need to help ‘austerity’s children’ – but Labour is sticking to its plan to keep the two-child benefit cap (PA)

Calls for a change of thinking on child poverty and an end to the two-child cap on child benefits are trending, as they say on social media, thanks to two high-profile interventions. The more unexpected of these came from Suella Braverman at the weekend, when she wrote: “The truth is that Conservatives should do more to support families and children on lower incomes ... A crucial reform that Frank [the late former Labour minister Frank Field] advocated was to scrap the two-child benefits limit, [which restricts] child tax credits and universal credit to the first two children in a family.

“If they have a third or fourth child, a low-income family will lose about £3,200 per year ... Over 400,000 families are affected and all the evidence suggests that it is not having the effect of increasing employment or alleviating poverty. Instead, it’s aggravating child poverty.”

Such thoughtful and pragmatic sentiments don’t often emerge from such circles, although Iain Duncan Smith is a notable exception to that particular caricature. Carrying more weight and authority is former PM Gordon Brown, who is also urging the (likely) incoming Labour government to make the change.