Among the options is applying the limit only to those with children who are five and over, exempting parents of disabled children, exempting parents in work and increasing child benefit payments for parents of young children.
Ministers and officials are in regular talks with thinktanks and child poverty experts as they put the finishing touches to their strategy, and have asked several organisations to work up models for how many children they could lift out of poverty under various scenarios.
As well as exempting parents of under-fives and raising the cap to three children, officials have also spoken about the option of increasing universal credit payments for parents of babies and toddlers, and introducing a “child benefit lock” to make sure it goes up each year in line with earnings or inflation.
Parents of under-fives could be exempted from the government’s two-child benefit limit under a range of options UK ministers are considering as they try to bring down child poverty numbers without removing the rule altogether.
Ben Cooper, a research manager at the Fabian Society, said: “As the government prepares its child poverty strategy, they must focus relentlessly on lifting babies and toddlers out of poverty – and ensuring they have the support needed to thrive.
