Mayor Woodley: Why abolishing the two-child benefit cap is a win for Hackney
The announcement from the government follows tireless campaigning on behalf of families in the borough
Caroline Woodley, Mayor of Hackney, responds to today's Autumn Budget, which includes scrapping the two-child limit on claiming child benefit.
I made a firm commitment to tackling poverty and inequality when I became the Mayor of Hackney – a borough hit particularly hard by cost of living challenges in the face of the housing crisis.
Today, our work in Hackney – from our Here to Help service that helps residents maximise their income to our targeted use of the Household Support Fund to support those who need it most – is being praised by the government’s own child poverty taskforce.
And now, we have an Autumn Budget that shows central government is ready to support us on that mission.
Abolishing the two child benefit cap introduced under the Conservative government in 2017 is something we have campaigned for relentlessly in Hackney. Lifting the cap will be transformative for so many families in our borough, where almost half of our children have been living in poverty, once housing is taken into account.
The rise in the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage, increase in Universal Credit allowances, freeze on rail fares and removal of levies on energy bills will also make a big difference to the lives of people in Hackney.
That’s in the same week that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joined me at Shoreditch Park Primary School to mark the milestone of one hundred million free school meals given out across the capital.
Together, it means governments at a local, regional and national level are working together to tackle inequality head on and provide real support to people here in Hackney.
Caroline Woodley, Mayor of Hackney