By David Bentley
Copyright birminghammail
Three areas of Birmingham are among the worst hit by the DWP two-child cap. The current rules restrict Universal Credit’s child element top-up of £292.81 a month to the first two children in a household. Although widely confused with Child Benefit, which has no restrictions on the number of youngsters who are eligible, the policy only affects Universal Credit and, previously, the now-obsolete benefit Child Tax Credit. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce the limit is being scrapped in her Autumn Budget. Charities, campaigners and many within the Labour Party have long called for the policy to be abolished, criticising it for dragging children into poverty. READ MORE: The two-child limit affected a record high of 469,780 Universal Credit households across Great Britain in the year to April 2025, according to the latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions. The majority of those households (59 per cent) were working and were home to a total of 1.7 million children. Some 67,230 of those children were in Universal Credit households across Birmingham . There were a total of 11,940 children living in households impacted by the two-child limit in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency, which is held by the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood. That works out as 34 per cent of children living in the area. It’s the highest number of impacted children of any constituency in the country, and the second highest proportion of a constituency’s children after Hackney North and Stoke Newington at 42 per cent. The Birmingham Hodge Hill & Solihull North constituency has the next highest number and proportion in the country. Last year, the cap impacted some 9,920 children in the area, which is 31 per cent of all those living there. Meanwhile, in Birmingham Yardley , a total of 8,030 children live in impacted households, which works out as 29 per cent of those in the area. In Birmingham Perry Barr it’s 28 per cent of children (8,220 in total), and in Birmingham Erdington it’s 27 per cent (7,300 in total). The three Birmingham constituencies of Ladywood, Hodge Hill & Solihull North, and Yardley are in Britain’s top 10 most affected areas. In the neighbouring Black Country, the constituency of Walsall & Bloxwich comes eighth in the national league table. By contrast, just 6 per cent of children in Sutton Coldfield live in households affected by the limit, the lowest proportion in our city. However, it still works out at 1,080 children. You can see how many children are impacted by the policy in each constituency by using our interactive map below. The map also shows you which MP and party currently controls the seat. The Guardian reported that the Treasury was considering different options, including whether the cap could be relaxed so it is limited to three or four children rather than two, or whether there could be a taper rate, meaning parents would receive the most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children. The Resolution Foundation think tank previously estimated that easing the two-child limit so families received support for the first three children they have would cost £2.4 billion in 2029/30 and would lift 280,000 children out of poverty. The organisation said abolishing the two-child limit completely would be the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. Estimates of scrapping the policy completely vary, with the Resolution Foundation estimating a cost of around £3.5 billion by the end of this Parliament (2029/30), while the Child Poverty Action Group and Joseph Rowntree Foundation have lower calculations of around £3 billion by then. Constituency Number of children % of children in area Party MP Birmingham Ladywood 11,940 34% Labour Shabana Mahmood Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North 9,920 31% Labour Liam Byrne Birmingham Yardley 8,030 29% Labour Jess Phillips Birmingham Perry Barr 8,220 28% Independent Ayoub Khan Birmingham Erdington 7,300 27% Labour Paulette Hamilton Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley 7,120 26% Labour Tahir Ali Birmingham Northfield 5,460 23% Labour Laurence Turner Birmingham Edgbaston 4,490 21% Labour Preet Kaur Gill Birmingham Selly Oak 3,670 19% Labour Al Carns Sutton Coldfield 1,080 6% Conservative Andrew Mitchell Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has previously said his party believed lifting the two-child benefit cap was “the right thing to do.” Meanwhile, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has insisted the policy remains right even though it “may not be popular”, and said she would reinstate it if it was scrapped. Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Scrapping the two-child benefit isn’t just irresponsible – it’s unfair. “Rachel Reeves must come clean: where’s the money coming from? Will it be more and more debt, or even higher taxes? The UK is in the grip of Labour’s cost-of-living crisis and the public deserve the truth. “With both Reform and Labour committing to the spiralling welfare bill, only the Conservative Party is committed to Britain living within its means.” Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, said the Government must “turn words into action and scrap the unfair two-child cap” without any further delay. He said: “Lifting the two-child benefit cap is the quickest and most effective way to tackle the scourge of child poverty. And it’s the right thing for our economy too, supporting today’s children to have better health, education and employment prospects in their future.” Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp . Join our dedicated community for the latest updates sent straight to your phone as they happen. You can find out more about cost-of-living issues in our Money Saving Newsletter, which is sent out daily via email with all the updates you need to know on pensions , PIP , Universal Credit , benefits, finances, bills, and shopping discounts. Get the top stories in your inbox to browse through at a time that suits you.
