I believe it is vital that the Government works to support those in need so please be assured that I will always stand up for my constituents when pressing the Government on important issues including support for childcare.
While I am firmly committed to supporting families, my beliefs on reducing child poverty centre on the clear evidence that parental employment substantially reduces the risk of poverty. I therefore call on the Labour Government to ensure they help parents into work as the best way to ensure parents are able to support their households.
I also believe more needs to be done to ensure our welfare system reflects the modern world of work, helps people into the jobs that are right for them and is set on a sustainable path for the taxpayer. The welfare system has to be balanced between providing strong work incentives and support for those who need it alongside fairness to the taxpayer and working families.
The rules on welfare entitlement for families with more than two children is a part of that balance of fairness - the historic benefits structure, which adjusted automatically to family size, was unsustainable as well as unfair to many working families who do not see their incomes rise when they have more children. Moreover, recent statistics show that 78 per cent of families on Universal Credit (UC) had fewer than three children.
I welcome that support is provided through Child Tax Credit and UC for a maximum of two children and understand that the same policy does not apply to the financial help available for childcare costs, passported benefits (for example, free school meals), additional support for any disabled children or Child Benefit.
I do recognise that some people are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family, and I welcome the full support for third and subsequent children born after April 2017 in certain circumstances. This includes children cared for by family or close friends under kinship care arrangements, children adopted from local authority care, and multiple births.
I am proud of the record of the previous Government on child poverty more generally, which invested up to £40 million through its National School Breakfast Programme, to support up to 2,700 schools in disadvantaged areas to provide nutritious breakfasts. It expanded the eligibility to more groups of children than any Government in the past 50 years, meaning thousands of children from low-income families are now supported. It also doubled the number of children receiving free school meals between 2010 and 2024, having extended eligibility several times to more groups of children. As a result, around 2 million pupils are eligible for and claim a free school meal, saving families over £480 a year for each child.
I hope the current Government continues the hard work already started in this area and finds more ways we can ensure fairness within the welfare system whilst also ensuring a quality standard of life for families across the United Kingdom.
