The UK government should drop a two-child limit for social welfare benefits, according to Church leaders who wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in advance of the new budget.

Introduced by the Tory government in 2017, the policy allows families claim benefits for at most two children. It was designed to save £1 billion over four years, and be an incentive for parents to find work.

Bishop Richard Moth, the Chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales Department for Social Justice, and Nigel Parker, the Director of the Catholic Union, a UK-based public policy institute, called for the abolishing of the two-child limit to “help the poorest children in our society to flourish and reach their true potential.”

Their letter to the Chancellor said that every child “is of equal value and their human dignity deserves to be upheld.”

“Abolishing the two-child limit will be both a tangible means of reducing child poverty in the UK and a clear sign of support for family life,” wrote Moth and Parker.