Timetable to end two-child benefit cap must be given in today’s Budget

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Rachel Reeves must give a timetable for ending the two-child benefit cap in today’s Budget.

We know it is going to be a tough financial plan which will include painful tax rises. Fourteen years of reckless Tory rule has left our public services on their knees. And they left a huge black hole in the budget for Labour to deal with.

Difficult decisions have to be made to fill the gap and give our public services the money they need to function. But ending the two-child cap must be a priority for Labour – even if it does not go today.

It is a cruel Tory policy and removing it is a sure-fire way to lift children out of poverty across the country. Two million children in the UK are already hit by the limit.

Another quarter of a million will be affected in the next year, with this set to increase to 670,000 by the end of this parliament. John Swinney is right to call for the cap to go. He recognises the harm that it has done to our young people.

But he too has to raise his game when it comes to child poverty. The SNP does not have a particularly good record in this area.

It introduced the Scottish Child Payment but the percentage of Scottish kids languishing in poverty is the same as when the SNP swept to power 17 years ago.

And one in four kids are still below the poverty line. Reeves is the first woman to ever deliver the Budget. By announcing her intention to scrap the cap, she can make it one to remember.

Wages boost

Labour will win plenty of admirers today with the widely expected increase to the minimum wage.

The Tories spent 14 long years in government talking about the need to make work pay. As in so many other areas, they failed miserably. The modest increases achieved by some workers were quickly wiped out by massive inflation, food costs doubling and energy bills rocketing.

For too many people across the country, working hard barely keeps their heads above water as wages are so low. It’s welcome news therefore that Reeves will raise the National Living Wage by 6.7 per cent – worth £1400 a year for an eligible full-time worker.

The National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds will also rise from £8.60 to £10 an hour. Labour plans to eventually raise the minimum wage so young workers will no longer be discriminated against purely due to their age.

These measures will hand a wage rise to more than three million people. It’s a welcome step in the right direction.

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