There has been mixed response from a Charedi leader to the scrapping of plans to retrospectively apply benefit caps to families with more than two children.

Announcing her decision, Work and Pensions Secterary Amber Rudd said it would be unfair to extend the measure to children born before the cap was introduced in April 2017.

“All children born before that date will continue to be supported by Universal Credit,” she announced today. “That will help approximately 15,000 families a year.

“And it means that by removing any retrospective application, the two-child policy retains its fundamental fairness.”

Rabbi Avrohom Pinter, a prominent member of Hackney’s Charedi community, where large families are the norm, said that although the rethink would bring “some comfort”, it did not go far enough.

Families who had a third child after the introduction of the cap two years ago would continue to be affected.

“It makes a mockery of the slogan the government had years ago, ‘Every child matters’,” he said. “It will create extreme difficulties for families blessed with children.”