Agenda

The following motion has been received by the deadline for consideration by Full Council on 27^th September 2023.

The Head of Legal and Democracy has confirmed that the subject matter of the motion is something which affects the Borough.

The motion has therefore duly been entered in the Motions Book.

This Council notes that:

In 2017, families were stopped from claiming Child Tax Credits or Universal Credit for more than two children.

It is estimated that this policy now affects over 1.5 million children.

Studies have shown that families in the poorest areas are worse off by over £3000 per year.

Ethnic communities are disproportionately affected by the benefit cap.

The estimated cost of removing the cap would be £1.5 billion per year.

Removing the cap could lift a quarter of a million children out of poverty and over three quarters of a million children could see their poverty levels decrease.

The estimated cost of Child Poverty, taking into account costs such as health issues, risk of unemployment later in life, risk of lower income levels, social costs and public services costs is £35 billion per year.

6,520 children in the Burnley Constituency are living in relative poverty according to figures from the DWP, with thousands of families relying on Food Banks or the Community Grocery.

This Council resolves to:

Ask the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council to write to the town’s MP Antony Higginbotham, asking him to support the removal of the cap and to raise awareness in the House of Commons of the poverty that it is causing.

Ask the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council to write to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, asking them to consider removing the benefit cap in order to lift thousands of Burnley families out of poverty.

Proposed by: Cllr. Scott Cunliffe

Seconded: Cllr. Jack Launer