Time is ticking for Labour to scrap the two-child limit – and then make Britain a welcoming place for children again | Polly Toynbee

Axing the cap is the first step towards pulling children out of poverty. Could £2.5bn ever be better spent?

At a stroke, this government could wipe out much of the extra child poverty caused by the last government. It would be a bargain, at a cost of just £2.5bn, revealed today in the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ assessment for the next budget. Authors Anna Henry and Tom Wernham have found the two-child benefit cap added significantly to the rising numbers of children thrown into poverty since 2010. Their findings make it all the more inconceivable that Labour would not scrap the two-child limit at this month’s budget. Nothing else it could spend on would have such instant effect and long-term value. Nothing else would please Labour voters as much.

Chancellors rarely get the opportunity to do so much, so easily and relatively cheaply. How much is £2.5bn? That depends on how you look at it. Out of a total spend of over £1tn, it’s a “rounding-up error”, says Ben Zaranko, senior IFS economist. But then he adds, “it’s not trivial either”. It would be enough to resolve the legal aid crisis blocking the courts, for example. It would do much for prisons, “or for councils struggling with social care and Send crises,” he says.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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