Sustain joins 100+ organisations calling for government to scrap the two-child limit

Every child deserves the best start in life, including equitable access to healthy, sustainable and culturally appropriate food. This government has made commitments to ‘create the healthiest generation of children ever’ and ‘end mass dependence on emergency food parcels’. By fully scrapping the two-child limit the government can deliver a decisive shift in children’s opportunities, and in the UK's potential.

Organisations representing doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers and health visitors, as well as housing experts and anti-poverty charities all signed the joint letter led by Child Poverty Action Group agreeing that the government should abolish the two-child limit in full to turn the tide on child poverty.

Sustain's Children's Food Campaign and Food Poverty Campaign continue to call for a raft of positive policies to make sure all children get the best nutritional start in life.

Read the coverage in The Independent, or listen to coverage on BBC Breakfast and The Today Programme.

See the full letter below:

Letter and signatories

As this government recognises, every child deserves the best start in life. But a record 4.5 million children live in poverty. Their life chances are being held back and their potential wasted. They deserve better. 

At the Budget, the Chancellor has a unique chance to change this. By fully scrapping the two-child limit she can deliver a decisive shift in children’s opportunities, and in our country’s future potential. 

We have come together as diverse organisations who recognise that turning the tide on child poverty is crucial for children, and also for wider ambitions on housing, education, health and national growth. Reducing child poverty will boost family budgets, and local economies. It will reduce household debt, and cut the huge future costs of poverty faced by our schools, hospitals and other public services. 

Every day the two-child limit remains, in any form, it pushes children into poverty. Now is not the time for half-measures.  

Now is the moment for the Prime Minister and Chancellor to hear the voices of the UK’s children and take this vital opportunity to do the right thing. 

Abolishing the two-child limit in full will set millions of children’s lives on a path to a brighter future, and help to rebuild a stronger, fairer country and economy. 

Full list of signatories (including Sustain's CEO Kath Dalmeny):

Matthew McGregor, CEO, 38 Degrees 

Katherine Hill, Director, 4in10 London's Child Poverty Network

Justina Murray, CEO, Aberlour Children's Charity

Brigitte Gater, Managing Director of Children’s Services, Action for Children

Fiona Ashcroft, CEO, Alder Hey Children’s Charity

Pepe Di'Iasio, General Secretary, Association of School and College Leaders

Diana Skelton, Head of Giving Poverty a Voice Programme, ATD Fourth World

Lynn Perry, CEO, Barnardo's

Prof Sam Baron, Interim CEO, BASW UK (The British Association of Social Workers)

Prof Kitty Stewart, Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE, Benefit Changes and Larger Families Research Project

Dr Steffan Evans, CEO, Bevan Foundation

Lord Bird MBE, Founder and Editor in Chief, Big Issue

Dr Tom Dolphin, Chair of Council, BMA

Liz Stockley, CEO, British Dietetic Association

Sanchita Hosali, CEO, British Institute of Human Rights

Joseph Howes, CEO, Buttle UK and Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition 

Patrick O’Dowd, Director, Caritas Salford

Ben Gilchrist, CEO, Caritas Shrewsbury

Claire Burns, Director, CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection

Baroness Anne Longfield CBE, Founder and Executive Chair, Centre for Young Lives

Professor Ruth Patrick, Lead, Changing Realities

Rachael Williamson, Director of policy, communications & external affairs, Chartered Institute of Housing

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group

Mary Glasgow, Chief Executive, Children First

Dr Judith Turbyne, Chief Executive Officer, Children in Scotland

Sean O’Neill, Deputy CEO-Policy Director, Children in Wales-Plant Yng Nghymru

Leigh Elliott, Chief Executive Officer, Children North East

Liam Purcell, Chief Executive Officer, Church Action on Poverty

Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive, Citizens Advice

Emma Jackson, Head of Social Justice, Citizens Advice Scotland

Leora Cruddas CBE, Chief Executive, Confederation of School Trusts

Dr Carol Homden CBE, CEO, Coram

Katie Bareham, CEO, Doorstep Library

Sarah Ronan, Executive Director, Early Education and Childcare Coalition

Claire Donovan, Director, End Furniture Poverty

Catherine Murphy, Executive Director, Engender

Chris Brill, CEO, Expert Link

Samantha Butters and Gina Cicerone, Co-CEOs, Fair Education Alliance

Will Snell, Chief Executive, Fairness Foundation

Cherrie Bija, Chief Executive, Faith in Families 

Cheryl Ward, CEO, Family Fund

Kris Gibbon-Walsh, CEO, FareShare

Andrew Forsey OBE, National Director, Feeding Britain

Anna Taylor, Executive Director, Food Foundation

Sarah Mann, CEO, Friends, Families and Travellers

Abigail Wood, CEO, Gingerbread

Emilie de Bruijn, Chair, Hartlepool Baby Bank 

Peter Babudu, Executive Director, Impact on Urban Health

Susannah Hardyman MBE, CEO, Impetus

Martyn Walker, Communications & Public Affairs Manager, Includem

Sabine Goodwin, Director, Independent Food Aid Network

Alison Morton, CEO, Institute of Health Visiting

Alfie Stirling, Director of Insight and Policy, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Jess McQuail, Director, Just Fair 

Louise King, Co-Lead, Just for Kids Law, including the Children’s Rights Alliance for England

Katie Ghose, Chief Executive, Kids

Bev Morgan, CEO, Koala North West

Steph Capewell, Chief Executive, Love, Amelia

Dr Lindsey MacDonald, Chief Executive, Magic Breakfast

Mark Rowland, Chief Executive, Mental Health Foundation

Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, NAHT

Matt Wrack, General Secretary, NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union

Phillip Anderson, Strategic Director for External Affairs, National Children’s Bureau

Daniel Kebede, General Secretary, National Education Union

Emma Balchin, Chief Executive Officer, National Governance Association

Alistair Smyth, Director of Policy and Research, National Housing Federation

Tim McLachlan, Chief Executive, NDNA

Professor Liz Todd OBE, Professor of Educational Inclusion, Newcastle University 

Beth Farhat, Chair, North East Child Poverty Commission

Anna Edmundson, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, NSPCC

Peter Kelly, Chief Executive, Poverty Alliance

Minnie Rahman, CEO, Praxis

Dr Katharine Vincent, Director, Reconnect London

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, Sub-group chair, Refugee and Migrant Children's Consortium

Graham Whitham, CEO, Resolve Poverty

Craig Anderson OBE, CEO, Reuse Network

Carli Whittaker, Head of Nursing, Royal College of Nursing

Professor Steve Turner, President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

Dan Paskins, Executive Director of UK Impact, Save the Children UK

Stephanie Slater MBE, Founder/Chief Executive, School Food Matters

Jaine Stannard, CEO, School-Home Support

Audrey Anderson, Chief Executive, Scottish Out of School Care Network

Sara Cowan, Director, Scottish Women’s Budget Group

Ruth Talbot, Founder, Single Parent Rights

Vikki Brownridge, Chief Executive, StepChange Debt Charity

Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive, Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming

James Toop, CEO, Teach First 

Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive, The Childhood Trust

Mark Russell, Chief Executive, The Children’s Society

Michael Mack, CEO, The Family Mediation Trust

Charlotte Hill, CEO, The Felix Project

Louise Johns-Shepherd, Chief Executive, The Kids Network

William Roberts, Chief Executive, The Royal Society for Public Health 

Nick Harrison, CEO, The Sutton Trust

Philip Goodwin, Chief Executive Officer, The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK)

Katie Taylor, Head of Communities and Social Change, Toynbee Hall

Matthew van Duyvenbode, Co-Chief Executive, Trussell

Paul Nowak, General Secretary, TUC 

Thomas Lawson, CEO, Turn2us

Tracy Daszkiewicz, President, UK Faculty of Public Health

Dr Sara Reis, Deputy Director and Head of Research & Policy, UK Women's Budget Group

Willie Slavin, Chair, West Cumbria Child Poverty Forum

Joanna Fashan, Associate Director, Whizz Kidz

Sonia Malik, Associate Director of Policy, Influencing and Voice, Young Lives vs Cancer

Andy Peers, Chief Executive, Zarach

Ayla Ozmen, Director of Policy and Engagement, Z2K