Essex foodbank on two-child benefit cap: "it penalises third child for being born"
New research shows family households with three or more children are the most at risk of relying on loans for everyday essentials
Families with lower incomes are still facing acute financial challenges a year after Labour's election victory, with larger households the most at risk of relying on loans for everyday essentials, research suggests.
The research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation comes amid widespread calls for the Government to scrap the two-child benefit limit in universal credit.
It shows families with three or more children are 16 percent more likely to be in arrears on bills, compared to those with fewer children.
In Essex, the founder of Southend foodbank tells Greatest Hits Radio it's seen an "increasing" amount of large families since the two-child benefit cap came into effect under the Conservatives in April 2017.
Cass Francis says "30% of the people that come to the foodbank are large families with three children or more."
"Ever since the cap, children have been devastated by a punitive measure that was never about them.
"This is about punishing the parents.
"You have a scarcity mindset growing up in poverty. You're in survival mode, clawing for the basics, and that is not a way for a child to grow up."
The JRF survey, who are also calling for the cap to be rid of, found the percentage of less well-off families with three or more children forced to borrow for food, heating and toiletries has hit a high of 71%.
Nearly nine in 10 surveyed families (88%) reported going without daily essentials.
The JRF argue that Government efforts to improve family services, early education and access to childcare "must be complemented by measures to boost incomes".
Maudie Johnson Hunter, economist at the JRF, called for the Government to put families' financial security "at the heart of everything they do" as the cost of living "is still grinding them down"
"It has already begun with its plans to give children the best start in life by expanding family services and making high-quality childcare and early years education more accessible
"But record numbers of large families are in arrears or have no choice but to take out loans to pay for essentials.
"Scrapping the two-child limit in universal credit would make an immediate difference to these children's lives.
The latest official estimates, for the year to March 2024, suggest there were a record 4.45 million children living in poverty in the UK.
Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza recently said some young people in England are living in an "almost-Dickensian level of poverty" and insisted the two-child limit must be scrapped.
The Government is expected to publish a child poverty strategy in the autumn.
When MPs debated welfare reforms last week, Government frontbenchers rolled back on their plan to reform the separate personal independence payment benefit, vowing to revisit any proposed changes only after a review by social security minister Sir Stephen Timms.
The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has warned the government’s U-turn on welfare cuts may make scrapping the policy more difficult.
The Government has been approached for comment.