Pastor urges parties to lift child benefit cap

Pastor Mick Fleming says politicians are behaving like financiers

A pastor whose street ministry has fed and clothed hundreds of families has begged whichever party wins the general election to scrap the cap on child benefit.

Pastor Mick Fleming, who went from drug dealer to serving desperate people in Burnley, has said the winning party must reverse the two-child limit imposed by the Conservative government seven years ago.

"This is about children - the cap on benefit has affected thousands of children," he said.

All the main parties have been contacted by the BBC about his proposal.

Mr Fleming told the BBC, "I know there are problems with state finances" but a new government could lift the cap on the number of children and cap the parents' income instead.

"People living on £60,000 a year do not need child benefit," he said.

He added: "I have seen the devastation that has been caused by the cap - only last week I had a young couple with three children who were desperate.

"They had no more money to feed their children for seven days - they were in tears.

"If they had that extra payment it would help a lot."

Mr Fleming added: "It seems to me the politicians are just financiers these days."

The benefit cap has become a topic for all parties ahead of the election

The two-child cap, which was introduced in 2017, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.

It means families cannot claim about £3,200 a year per extra child, according to charities and campaigners.

In their election manifesto, the Conservatives say child benefit would move "to a household system, so families don’t start losing child benefit until their combined income reaches £120,000".

Questioned on the cap during a televised debate on ITV last week, Reform UK leader Mr Farage said: "I think we should encourage people to have families."

A Labour Party spokeswoman said: "It is unacceptable that four million children are currently growing up in a low-income family and child poverty levels have increased significantly under the Tories."

She added the party had a plan to reduce child poverty including free breakfast clubs in every primary school, protecting renters from arbitrary eviction, slash fuel poverty and banning "exploitative zero hours contracts".

A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman told the BBC it would remove the two-child limit and "lift half a million children out of poverty".

She added: "Children do not choose to be born to parents who already have other children and it is unfair to design the system that punishes them."

The Green Party has just released its policy on welfare, which calls for the cap to be scrapped.

Green Party co-leader, Adrian Ramsay said: “This one decision could lift 250,000 children out of poverty."