The Board of Deputies has welcomed the government’s plan to lift the two-child benefit cap from next April, which it said had disproportionately affected Jewish families.
The Jewish representative body had been opposed to the restriction when it was introduced by the previous Conservative government eight years ago.
In his concluding comments at the Board’s plenary meeting on Sunday, its president Phil Rosenberg said: “We did see one thing [in the Budget] that I think we welcome, which is the abolition of the two-child cap on which we've been campaigning alongside the Interlink Foundation and the Charedi community. That’s a welcome change.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who had been under pressure from Labour backbenchers to remove the cap, announced she would be doing so last week.
The scrapping of the limit, which will enable families to receive the child element of Universal Credit for all of their children, will aid large Charedi families in particular. It could mean an extra £3,513 per child.
In its “Jewish Manifesto” published ahead of last year’s general election, the Board commented: “A majority of Jewish children grow up in households of more than two children, therefore caps on benefits disproportionately affect Jewish families, and can cause extreme hardship.”
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