The figures are staggering. Nearly 10,000 children in our communities up and down west Wales; More than 2,700 households struggling to make ends meet – all because the current Labour Government at Westminster is abiding by the two-child limit on claiming tax and benefit credits.

Now poverty activists and local MPs are calling for the Government to end the pain, especially as Scotland is getting rid of the punitive cap next March.

"Plaid Cymru have been consistent from the outset,” explains Liz Saville Roberts, the Member of Parliament for Dwyfor Meirionnydd. “We have fought to scrap the punitive two-child-cap because it is the right thing to do for thousands of children growing up in poverty.”

According to the latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), there are some 2,240 children in 610 households in Ms Saville Roberts’ constituency affected by the two-child limit last April.

Using the latest census figures, it means around 14 per 1,000 households in her constituency were impacted by the policy.

"Keir Starmer won the 2024 General Election on a simple message of change, yet we have seen little change from this Labour UK government that will help those most in need,” Ms Saville Roberts told Tindle News.

"Figures show around 1.6 million children in 450,000 families across the UK are now affected by the two-child cap – that’s a staggering one in nine children including 2,240 children in Dwyfor Meirionnydd.

"While Labour chose to keep the cruel two-child cap and push more people into poverty through cuts to disability benefits, Plaid Cymru are pledging to take positive actions on reducing poverty including the introduction of a Welsh Child Payment to reach nearly one third of households in poverty.

"Poverty is not inevitable for our communities,” she said.

According to the data from DWP, across west Wales there are 9,720 children living in 2,740 households affected by the punitive limit.

The two-child cap excludes most households with a third or subsequent child born on or after 6 April 2017 from claiming Universal Credit. It was also used to restrict Child Tax Credit benefits, which closed in April.

Charities have warned the policy is pulling increasing numbers of children and families into poverty, and urged the Government to scrap it as part of its upcoming child poverty strategy, due in the autumn.

Across Wales, England and Scotland, nearly 1.7 million children were living in some 470,000 households affected by the two-child limit when the figures were compiled in the spring. That number was up from around 1.4 million children in nearly 386,000 households the year before.

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham said the two-child limit pushes children into poverty, "cutting them off from opportunity".

She warned: "The policy forces families to live on less than they need – both those with jobs and those who can’t currently work because of very young children – and abandons them to hardship.

"The Prime Minister has promised to leave no stone unturned to give every child the best start in life, but until the policy goes child poverty will continue to rise and Government’s ambitions for children will not be realised.

"Government must remove the policy in its autumn child poverty strategy or risk having more children in poverty at the end of its first term than when it took office."

Across Great Britain, more than half (59 per cent) of households affected by the policy were in work in April, with at least one claimant in the household earning.

Julia Pitman, head of policy and research at Action for Children, said "the relentless impact of the two-child limit continues to grow", as more children are now "suffering its consequences".

She added many children are living in households affected by both the two-child limit and the overall benefit cap, which she warned is "pushing these families even deeper into poverty and trapping them there".

Ahead of the upcoming child poverty strategy, she called on the Government to abandon both policies.

Around 38,200 (8 per cent) of households hit by the two-child limit policy in Great Britain were also affected by the benefit cap in April, with 141,290 children living in these households.

Ben Lake, the MP for Ceredigion Preseli, told Tindle News: “Child poverty is projected to rise in Wales from 32.3 per cent in January 2025 to 34.4 per cent by 2029, and the two-child cap is frequently cited as a major driver behind this increase.

“Those in favour of retaining the cap too often disregard the significant harm that it inflicts on children, and the fact that they have no control whatsoever over whether they are the second or third child in their family. In Ceredigion Preseli alone, more than 1,700 children are caught by the cap, which directly impacts them during the most crucial years of their development.

“By choosing to retain the two-child cap, the UK Government is not only allowing deep poverty to persist across our communities but also deciding that children should bear the brunt of addressing its fiscal challenges.

“Scrapping the two-child limit is the most cost-effective and immediate way to lift thousands of children out of poverty. Plaid Cymru has consistently called for this policy to be abolished and if the Government is serious about giving every child the best possible start in life, it must urgently reconsider its stance at the Autumn Statement."

In Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, there is a similar number of children caught in the limit. DWP reports 1,520 children were living in 440 households in the constituency affected by the two-child limit.

And in the constituency of Caerfyrddin, the data on limits showed almost 2,000 living in 510 household hit by the limit.

Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd for the Mid and West Wales region Cefin Campbell, who raised the two-child benefit cap during First Minister’s Questions in the Senedd back in June, said: “Around one in three children in Pembrokeshire are currently growing up in poverty, and by 2029, Wales is forecasted to have the worst child poverty rate in the UK. Much of this has been driven by cruel two-child benefit cap introduced by the Tories.

“Many of my constituents will have been deeply disappointed with the UK Labour Government’s failure – despite being in office for over year – to lift this policy. They will also be disappointed that Welsh Labour MPs and MSs in London and Cardiff Bay have voted against Plaid Cymru motions to scrap it.”

The DWP data shows some 2,440 children in Mid and South Pembrokeshire were living in 690 households affected by the two-child limit – that’s about one 15 per 1,000 households in the constituency impacted by the policy.

“Plaid Cymru is the only party taking child poverty seriously. We are also the only party backing a Cynnal payment, which would put an additional £10 a week for every child directly into the pockets of families already receiving Universal Credit,” MS Campbell told Tindle News.

“It is projected that Scotland, whose model we’ve based the idea on, will be the only country to see a reduction in child poverty this year.”