More than 1,700 children in Street, Glastonbury, Wells, Shepton Mallet and Frome are living in families hit by the Government's two-child benefit limit, new figures reveal.

The cap, which blocks parents from claiming Universal Credit or Child Tax Credit for a third or later child born after April 2017, is affecting 490 households across the area. And despite the harsh rules, most of those families are in work.

Data from the Department for Work and Pensions shows 300 affected households in the constituency had at least one adult with earnings.

That means over 60% of the families penalised by the policy are not unemployed.

Campaigners have warned the cap is forcing thousands of children into poverty and called on ministers to scrap it as part of a long-awaited child poverty strategy due this autumn.

Alison Garnham, head of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: "The policy forces families to live on less than they need – both those with jobs and those who can't currently work because of very young children – and abandons them to hardship."

She added: "Until the policy goes, child poverty will continue to rise and the Government's ambitions for children will not be realised."

Across Britain, nearly 1.7 million children are now affected by the limit – up from 1.4 million last year – with 470,000 households caught in the net.

advertisement

More than half of those households are working.

In the area covering the former Mendip district, around 13 in every 1,000 households are impacted. Some families are also hit by the separate benefit cap, compounding the strain.

In total, 120 children across 30 households in the area were affected by both policies in April. Nationwide, more than 141,000 kids are growing up in households hit by the double blow.

Julia Pitman from Action for Children said: "The relentless impact of the two-child limit continues to grow. More and more children are suffering its consequences, often alongside the benefit cap, pushing families deeper into poverty and trapping them there."

The Scottish Government has pledged to scrap the two-child limit from March 2026, and charities want Westminster to follow suit.

A Government spokesperson said: "We are reforming the broken social security system and helping people into work. We're also supporting families with free school meals, family hubs and changes to Universal Credit repayments."