120,000 north east children growing up in poverty, new research suggests

CAMPAIGNERS SAY THE FIGURES SHOW THE NEED FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO SCRAP THE TWO-CHILD BENEFIT CAP 00:01, 02 Jun 2025Updated 07:55, 02 Jun 2025 Campaigners are stepping up the pressure on the

Government to scrap the two-child benefit cap after figures show tens of thousands of young people in the North East are growing up in poverty. The annual figures from the End Child Poverty

Coalition a total of 120,600 children in the North East mayoral area - 30% of its young people - are in poverty, plus another 49,700 in the Tees Valley. The highest levels, 43%, are seen in

the Newcastle Central and West constituency are in poverty while more than 30% of young people are growing up poor in Newcastle, Sunderland, South Tyneside, Gateshead and County Durham. The

figures for 2023-4 cover the last year of the Conservative Government but still put pressure on Labour, which has made reducing child poverty a stated aim at both a local and national level.

Government sources have in recent weeks been floating the possibility of scrapping the two-child benefit cap, which is widely agreed to be the best single way of bringing hundreds of

thousands of children out of poverty. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, co-chair of the Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce, last week gave the strongest indicator yet that Ministers

could get rid of the cap brought in by the Conservatives in 2017. But campaigners have called on the Government to “turn pledges into real action for North East children”, with the warning

that Labour risks seeing child poverty rise during this Parliament unless it moves soon. Beth Farhat, chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, said: “Within weeks of coming into

office, the Government made an important commitment to deliver an ambitious child poverty strategy. Article continues below “This report provides yet more proof why it’s now beyond time to

quickly turn that welcome pledge into real action. Babies, children and young people across our region simply cannot wait much longer for this to happen. “That plan must include scrapping

the two-child limit as an urgent priority. All the evidence shows that a child poverty strategy that fails to do this just isn’t credible – and will struggle to make a dent in the

unacceptably high child poverty rates we now have across almost every part of our region.” Leigh Elliott, chief executive of the largest regional children’s charity, Children North East,

added: “Every child in every part of the North East should be able to have the best start in life, but this research shows how far we currently are from that ambition. We see the terrible,

limiting impact of this every single day on the children and families we work with across the region, including those punished by the two-child limit. “Yet we know there is nothing

inevitable about child poverty in the North East. With the right policies, investment and leadership from the top, we can change this. The Government must quickly set out how it plans to do

this, before another generation of children across our region have their entire childhoods blighted by poverty.” The new research for the End Child Poverty coalition by Loughborough

University highlights high rates of child poverty in all parts of the North East. The study finds that two-thirds of the parliamentary constituencies have a child poverty rate at or above

than the national average of 31%. The researchers also found a direct link between poverty levels and the number of families affected by the two-child limit. The policy, introduced in 2017,

means families are not entitled to receive Universal Credit support for a third or subsequent child. The new research finds that the majority (59%) of households affected by the two-child

limit are in work and so are limited in their ability to increase their incomes through employment. Article continues below Reform UK leader Nigel Farage last week pledged to scrap the

two-child limit, though opponents said he could not say how he would pay for that. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on Friday reiterated her party’s support for the policy, saying that the

other parties were asking taxpayers “to fund unlimited child support for others”. The Government’s child poverty strategy, which had been due to be published in the spring, is now set to

come in the autumn so it can be aligned with the Chancellor’s budget. In a BBC interview last week, Sunderland MP Bridget Phillipson suggested scrapping the policy is “not off the table” ,

though she warned it would be costly. North East mayor Kim McGuinness has made reducing child poverty in the region a priority for her time in office. She has set up a taskforce to tackle

the issue locally but has also called on the Government to remove the two-child benefit cap.