Compounding the hardship The two-child limit, the benefit cap and the cost of living crisis

In this briefing, we summarise findings from the Benefit Changes and Larger Families project, a three-year mixed-methods research programme which has investigated the impacts of the two-child limit and the benefit cap on families with three or more children.

Our evidence shows that the two-child limit and the benefit cap are not meeting their aims.

Instead these policies leave families unable to afford basic necessities and push families into deeper poverty.

Families affected by the two-child limit and the benefit cap are experiencing extreme hardship during the ongoing cost of living crisis, which the cost of living payments have been insufficient to alleviate.

Both the two-child limit and benefit cap need to be abolished urgently.