Shropshire rates of child poverty revealed as campaigners call to scrap the two-child cap on benefits

Figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) also detail the number of children who are impacted by the two-child limit to benefits payments across the West Midlands.

It comes as a debate took place in Parliament on Tuesday, where MPs called for an end to the "cruel" two-child cap on benefits payments, led by the MP for Liverpool Riverside – Kim Johnson.

The two-child limit policy was introduced in 2017, whereby parents are not entitled to any extra support through universal credit or child tax credit to help with raising a third or subsequent child born after April 6, 2017.

The government argued that removing the benefits, worth £3,000 a year per child, would act as an incentive to parents to move into work or work more hours.

But campaigners at End Child Poverty say that the "ineffective" and "cruel" cap on benefits hasn't driven parents back into work, but more children into poverty.

Official statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions, show that as of July 14 2022, 58 per cent of claimants affected by the policy – or 216,000 – were classified as in-work.

Campaigners say the two-child limit creates a huge hole in budgets that cannot be plugged by working additional hours.

Findings from the End Child Poverty Coalition for Shropshire, Telford and the West Midlands

In Shropshire, 4,300 children are living in families that have been impacted by the two-child limit, according to figures from the End Child Poverty Coalition.

In Shrewsbury & Atcham, 1,710 children are living in families which have been impacted by the two-child limit, with the constituency having an overall child poverty rate of 29 per cent.