• HUNDREDS of thousands of United Kingdom households are affected by the “two-child” benefits cap, introduced in 2017, which restricts universal credit and child tax credit to a family’s first two children and provides less or nothing for any others.

It is one of our country’s biggest causes of child poverty, with the statistics showing that increases significantly in families with three children, since then, and also that bigger families are considerably more likely to be using food banks.

More than half of those affected are in work and nearly half are single-parent households, like mine.

Many are in this position for reasons beyond our control, such as death of a partner, domestic violence, or the loss of a job.

Whatever the intention of the policy, it is creating deep divisions in young people’s development, which will affect lifelong outcomes in their health, education, and employment. I can tell you that on a practical level, economies of scale with children are very limited.

They can only share bedrooms to a certain point, all need their own shoes, school trips, all eat food that costs more and more.

For each of my children, special glasses lenses to slow a child’s rapidly advancing myopia cost over £200 a time, not covered by the National Health Service.

Whatever my budget has been, I always had to provide for my children decently, and I can understand how simple things like suitable school shoes can land people in debt.

For many in this generation of children other ways to develop their bodies and minds are increasingly out of reach.

It’s not just the costs of things like music lessons keeping them out of reach for many children, it’s also the premium of a parent or nanny who is available to take them there.

This is made all the more difficult by the pressures of universal credit with its inherent assumptions of sums earned, whether actually they are, deducted from any benefits given.

This meshes very badly for individual parents who have no choice but take up available freelance work or zero-hours contracts.

The social effects of these economic policies for families is robbing this generation of affordable time with the guidance of a parent.

There are so many things that are underfunded that are added to family poverty: The NHS Minor Ailments Service no longer covers the costs of children’s medicines in most pharmacies in England.

There are also deep flaws in the legal aid system, so parents are often forced into situations where they have no choice but to pay enormous legal costs in family court hearings.

And many parents (disproportionately women) are at the front line of keeping themselves and their children safe from domestic abuse.

The poverty faced by many parents doing everything right that they can, working as much as they can, is shocking.

Closer to home, though, Islington Council applies the same “two-child” cap on its council tax support for lower income households, as the government does nationally, even though Labour, who currently have the majority of seats on the council, have expressed opposition to the policy at both national and local levels.

I personally feel strongly that the “two-child” cap should be scrapped nationally.

But while it’s only part of the wider picture Islington Council should play their part to support struggling families in the borough by scrapping it here as soon as possible.

ZOE ALZAMORA
Islington Green Party