Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is confident the two-child benefit cap will be addressed in the autumn budget.
Earlier this year Brown called on the Labour government to hike gambling taxes to prevent a social crisis.
Brown wants the additional funds generated to cover the cost of scrapping the two-child rule, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
Brown served as PM and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010 after working as Chancellor for the decade prior.
Speaking on Sky News’ Mornings with Ridge and Frost, Brown said: “I am confident that the two-child rule will be addressed. We’re waiting for Rachel Reeves’s budget, which I think will mention this.
“Keir Starmer, I know is personally concerned and interested in this. So I’m hopeful that in the next few weeks we’ll see the kind of action that we’ve been talking about.”
The Child Poverty Action Group said every day the two-child cap remains in place, 109 more children are pulled into poverty by the policy.
Immediately scrapping it could lift 350,000 children out of poverty at cost of £2 billion and would reduce the depth of poverty for another 800,000.
Brown argued that if cigarettes are taxed at 80% and alcohol at 70%, there is a big case for change in gambling tax.
Reeves’ Treasury team is currently finalising her second budget as Chancellor, set to be delivered on Wednesday, November 26.
At Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool last month, Reeves argued gambling operators “should pay their fair share.”
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank reported Reeves could generate an extra £3.2 billion a year with the move, with the main focus on casino games and slot machines.
The changes are not expected to impact horse racing, but it hasn’t stopped some of Britain’s biggest firms threatening to shut all betting shops in the UK such as Betfred.
Joe Lyons is a betting industry writer for GamblingIndustryNews with years of experience on reputable gambling websites. Joe specialises in long form content in the world of sports betting and gambling. Joe is recognised as an expert in sports fields such as horse racing, soccer, NFL and NBA.
