Budget 2025: Two-child limit scrapped at cost of £3bn

The Government’s decision to abolish the controversial two-child benefit limit from April is expected to be welcomed across the North East.

It was confirmed on this lunchtime (November 26) that the cap will be removed within Universal Credit from April 2026. The decision was revealed in leaked Office for Budget Responsibilty (OBR) documents leaked more than half an hour before Chancellor Rachel Reeves stood up to deliver her budget in the House of Commons.

The move is expected to lift around 450,000 children out of poverty by 2029/30, according to the watchdog, including 70,000 in the North East.

The policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, restricts child tax credit and Universal Credit support to a family’s first two children.

Charities estimate that 109 children a day have b