Baking inequality in from birth: New analysis of the way the two-child limit and the benefit cap intersect with ethnicity

Justice Aina, Ruth Patrick, Aaron Reeves, Thomas Stephens and Kitty Stewart

Published 10 July 2025

This briefing paper contains new quantitative evidence on the way the twochild limit and benefit cap affect children from different ethnic backgrounds. Drawing on official statistics and our own analysis of the Family Resources Survey, we show that children from some minority ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by both these policies, which are in turn contributing to substantial and widening ethnic disparities in child poverty rates.