UK hasn’t seen poverty like this for 60 years, says Gordon Brown in call to scrap two-child benefit cap
Gordon Brown: Raise gambling taxes to fund abolition of benefit cap
- Gordon Brown has warned that Britain is experiencing its worst poverty in over half a century, urging Sir Keir Starmer to abolish the two-child benefit cap.
- The former prime minister proposed funding the abolition of the cap, which would cost £3.2 billion, through reforms to gambling taxes.
- Mr Brown supported a report by The Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggesting that increased gambling taxes could lift around half a million children out of poverty.
- The two-child benefit cap, introduced by George Osborne, restricts benefit claims for third or subsequent children born after April 2017.
- The Betting and Gaming Council has criticised the proposed tax increases, arguing they are “economically reckless” and could push consumers towards unregulated black markets.