Two child benefits limit drives poverty and harms the life chances of children, says the Bishop of Leicester, as new data on Child Poverty is published.
The End Child Poverty Coalition, together with the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, has published data on the number of children living in poverty in each Westminster constituency and local authority across the UK.
The Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, who is the Church of England's lead bishop on poverty, has issued the following response:
“These statistics remind us of the sheer scale of child poverty and the particularly high levels in certain parts of the country. Churches are doing all they can to love their neighbour and offer hope and opportunity to people in the communities they live among and serve.
"But we know from the struggles of many people in our congregations, and the demand we see for our projects every day, that there is much work to do to turn the tide on poverty. I pray that the Government's child poverty strategy will rise to the challenge we face, addressing the two-child limit and other policies which drive poverty and harm the health, wellbeing and life chances of our children."
- The General Synod of the Church of England backed a call last year for an end to the two-child benefit limit. The limit means families can only claim child tax credit and universal credit for their first two children, if they were born after April 2017.
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