Data on impact of 2-child limit
1 in 10 children in Northern Ireland live in households affected by the 2-child limit. This amounts to over 45 thousand children across the region. The two-child limit affects families entitled to benefits who have had a third or subsequent child after 6 April 2017. These parents are denied £3,235 per year per child compared with families who have a third or subsequent child born before that date.
22% of children in Northern Ireland were experiencing in poverty in 2021-22. The two child-limit only exacerbates child poverty, and puts more pressure on the most vulnerable families.
The data shows that:
- *16% of children in West Belfast live in households impacted by the two-child limit
- *14% in North Belfast
- *11% in Newry and Armagh
- *11% in Foyle.
*This correlates with child poverty figures for those areas -28.5% for west Belfast, 27.5% for north, 26% for Newry and Armagh and 23% for Foyle.
(The figures of children impacted by the two-child limit were obtained by the End Child Poverty UK after submitting a FOI to both HMRC and the Department for Communities.)
The data for the whole of the UK and for Northern Ireland specifically can be accessed below. The data can be viewed by MP constituency, as well as by Local Authority.
NIAPN calls on MPs to scrap the 2-child limit, and in the interim, the Assembly should accept recommendations from the Welfare Mitigations Review and mitigate against it.
As a member of the Cliff Edge Coalition, NIAPN sees this demand as a key ask for Stormont and Westminster to address growing child poverty.
