How reintroducing the two-child benefit limit would affect the UK

Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's economy spokesperson, announced on 18 February 2026 that Reform UK would reintroduce the two-child benefit limit, citing an estimated cost of around £3 billion a year by 2029. The limit, introduced in 2017, restricts Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit child elements to a family's first two children born after April 2017. Chancellor Rachel Reeves removed the limit from April 2026 as part of the Autumn Budget 2025.

In this analysis, we examine the impact of reintroducing the two-child limit on government spending, income distribution, poverty rates, income inequality, and geographic variation across parliamentary constituencies.

Figure 1: Change in household income by income decile

The impact of reintroducing the two-child limit varies across parliamentary constituencies, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Average income change by parliamentary constituency