I believe that supporting families and helping parents into work requires a balanced system that provides support for those who need it, but that also ensures a sense of fairness to the taxpayer and many working families who do not see their incomes rise when they have more children.
I further believe that the previous benefits structure, which adjusted automatically to family size, was unsustainable. Moreover, recent statistics show that 78 per cent of families on Universal Credit (UC) had fewer than three children.
I welcome, however, that support is provided through Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit for a maximum of two children. I understand that the same policy does not apply to help with childcare costs, passported benefits (for example, free school meals), additional support for any disabled children or Child Benefit.
Please be assured that I 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.
