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The government is considering getting rid of the two-child benefit cap first brought in by the Conservatives.
The policy has caused considerable consternation within the Labour Party, with a growing number of MPs calling to scrap it and ministers so far refusing to.
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But now, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has given the government’s strongest hint yet it may scrap the cap after she told Sky News ministers are “considering” lifting it.
We look at what the cap is and the controversy over it.
What is the two-child benefit cap?
Since 2017, parents have only been able to claim child tax credit and universal credit for their first two children, if they were born after April 2017.
An exception is made for children born as a result of rape.
Who introduced it?
Then work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith first proposed the policy in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
It was not until 2015 that then chancellor George Osborne announced a cap would be introduced from the 2017/2018 financial year.
The coalition said it made the system fairer for taxpayers and ensured households on benefits faced the same financial choices around having children as those not on benefits.
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David Cameron’s government introduced the cap, though he was out of office by the time it came in
What is Labour’s position on the cap?
The party has long been divided over the issue, with…
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