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Universal Credit: Children

Asked by Neil Duncan-JordanLabourDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled Answered 2 July 2026UIN 13052

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of increasing the universal credit child element by £20 a week on child poverty levels.

Answered by Dame Diana Johnson

Our commitment to tackling child poverty is at the heart of the government’s plan for national renewal - delivering more security, more opportunity, and more respect for every family and every community across the UK.

The reversal of the two-child limit in Universal Credit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this parliament. The combined measures in the Strategy will lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of the parliament. Taken together these measures will see the largest expected reduction in child poverty by any Government in a single parliament since comparable records began.

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