Stamford Hill Jewish community calls on government to scrap two-child benefit cap

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

The Jewish Community Council (JCC) of Stamford Hill has become the first Jewish organisation to call on the government to remove to the two-child benefit cap.

In a letter sent on 9 August, the JCC, along with rabbis and representatives from Hackney synagogues, co-signed a letter addressed to the secretary of state for work and pensions, Liz Kendall.

The letter calls on the government to consider the unique needs of larger families and the disproportionate impact the two-child cap has on them. It urged the government to remove the two-child cap on benefits at the earliest possible opportunity.

“Traditionally, Haredi families are large”, Rabbi Levi Schapiro, director of the JCC, told the Citizen.

“There’s approximately an average of seven people per family, but I know families with 12 or 13 people too, so you can imagine the financial pressure on these families,” he continued.

Stamford Hill is home to over 6,500 Orthodox Jewish families, making it the largest Haredi community in the UK. Rabbi Schapiro has said that the benefit cap, twinned with the cost-of-living crisis, has exacerbated poverty levels in the community.

“Kosher food is expensive – a small chicken alone can be twice the price of what you could buy at Tesco or Sainsbury’s”, Rabbi Schapiro continued. “These families are not buying luxury products; they have no alternative if they are to live a Kosher life”.

Since the letter was sent, Rabbi Schapiro said there has been “serious, positive and constructive engagement with the government”.

“We’ve got an indication that they have heard us loud and clear”, he added, “We don’t expect the government to make an overnight decision, but this issue must be a priority in the next budget in September.”

Cllr Penny Wrout, of the Hackney Independent Socialist Group, told the Citizen: “I can safely say that we stand 100 per cent with all and any calls to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which would instantly lift a million children in the UK above the poverty line.

“We simply can’t understand why the Labour government hasn’t prioritised this when child poverty action groups have repeatedly said this is the fastest and most effective way to have an instant impact on so many children’s lives.

“We applaud the actions of the JCC in Stamford Hill in taking this action”.

Cllr Alastair-Binnie Lubbock, co-leader of Hackney Green party said: “Labour spoke against the Tories’ two-child benefit cap when it was introduced, but now they won’t take necessary steps to lift the cap.

“Greens proposed a wealth tax so that those with the broadest shoulders, the billionaires and multi-millionaires, contribute a little bit more to address the cost-of-living crisis that still disproportionately punishes people struggling to make ends meet.

“The government should be on the side of ordinary people and lift the cap”.

Hackney Labour party and Hackney Conservatives were also approached for comment but did not respond.