About 400,000 fewer children will be living in poverty from Monday 6 April 2026, compared with 12 months earlier, as a result of the change, according to analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “Ending the two-child cap will do more than any other measure to lift children out of poverty, and we welcome that this cruel Tory policy has been scrapped. The UK is one of the seven wealthiest nations in the world, yet millions of our kids are growing up in poverty, which is absolutely shameful, particularly with 7 in 10 of them in working households.
“Labour is turning around a 14-year legacy of Tory failure, when child poverty rose by about 900,000 after 2010. The Government has made a good start by delivering a significant increase in minimum wage rates and helping to make jobs more secure with the Employment Rights Act. All these initiatives should make a real difference to working families, as has the rolling out of free breakfast clubs, new nurseries in primary schools opening hundreds of Best Start Family Hubs nationwide and doubling free childcare to 30 hours a week.
“We call on the Government to continue to take bold steps to lift more children out of poverty, including comprehensive implementation of all aspects of their Plan to Make Work Pay, reform of Universal Credit, and delivering improvements through the parental leave and pay review. The social security safety net is crucial support for so many workers and must help to ensure that work pays.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also represents many workers in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion