Kemi Badenoch slammed by community leader over ‘unacceptable’ two-child cap comment

Kemi Badenoch said 1,000 Hackney families with ‘five or six children’ stand to gain millions from the reform. Photograph: UK Parliament

The leader of the Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Stamford Hill has criticised Kemi Badenoch for claiming that lifting the two-child benefit cap for 1,000 larger families in Hackney will cost the taxpayer £74million.

The Conservative leader outlined plans to ‘get Britain working again’ in a keynote speech in central London last week. Standing behind a lectern with the words ‘stronger economy’ emblazoned across the front panel, she claimed Labour had created “a Budget for benefit street.”

“I’ve long said Britain is at risk of becoming a welfare state with an economy attached,” she said. “Under Labour, there wouldn’t be an economy to attach for much longer.”

Badenoch appeared to take particular issue with the scrapping of the cap – announced in Rachel Reeves’ Budget last month – singling out the borough as an example.

“In Hackney alone, 1,000 families on benefits with five or six children stand to gain £74million from the lifting of the two-child benefit cap. Some of those families will be getting more than £14,000 a year.

“At the Budget, income tax thresholds were frozen. So do you know how many people’s thresholds were frozen just to pay for those families in Hackney? […] The number we have found [is] 340,000 taxpayers.

“It’s no wonder people are angry.”

The Conservatives have already vowed to re-scrap the cap should they win the next election.

“Labour sent a very clear message,” Badenoch added. “That if you work hard, and you do the right thing, you’ll get less – but if you are on benefits, you will get more.”

Hackney’s general fertility rate (GFR) is slightly lower than elsewhere in the country with 54 live births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2021, compared with 56 in 1000 across London and England.

However, birth rates in North Hackney – which has a large Haredi Jewish population – are much higher than in the rest of the borough.

The JCC became the first Jewish organisation to officially call for its removal in a letter to the then-secretary of state for work and pensions, Liz Kendall, last summer.

JCC director Rabbi Levi Schapiro told the Citizen his organisation represents around 3,000 families, with an average of seven people per family. He accused the opposition leader of ‘discriminating against’ Hackney’s Haredi Jewish population.

Rabbi Levi Schapiro of the Jewish Community Council. Photograph: courtesy of Rabbi Schapiro

“Traditional Orthodox Jews tend to have larger families because these are our values,” he told us.

“Even with all the benefits, families are still struggling. Even families in the community with only two children are still struggling. The removal of the two-child cap is a very important and significant step in the right direction, but nobody is getting rich out of it.”

He added: “Having children should not be a crime. To discriminate against a certain minority community, saying 340,000 people pay for 1,000 families in Hackney… I don’t think it’s fair to say this, especially in the current climate.

“Her attacking our community is unacceptable, she’s out of touch.”

The benefit cap was introduced by former Conservative chancellor George Osborne and means parents can only claim universal credit or tax credits for their first two children.

Families with a third or subsequent child or children born after 6 April 2017 have therefore not been able to claim benefits for those children.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank claims affected families could have received an average of £4,400 in benefit entitlements a year had the cap not been introduced.

In Hackney, more than 15,000 children are expected to be lifted out of poverty when the cap is lifted – nationwide, 470,000 people under 16 stand to receive additional support.

Hackney Foodbank previously welcomed the decision. Speaking on behalf of the organisation, Jenna Fansa said: “For our food bank and the families we support, the decision to end the two-child benefit limit on Universal Credit is a huge relief.

“All children deserve a good start in life, yet thousands live in households which struggle to put food on the table. Hackney has the second highest level of deprivation among children in England – 64 per cent of children here live in income-deprived homes.

“We’re hopeful the changes in April will lift many of those children out of poverty and stop more being drawn into it.”

The Citizen has contacted the Conservative Party for comment.