THE government was urged to scrap the two-child benefit cap as part of a cross-party commission’s “once in a generation” plan lift millions out of poverty published today.

The Poverty Strategy Commission published a raft of proposals to lift 4.2 million out of poverty, including 2.2 million people stranded in “deep poverty” — defined as household income at least 50 per cent below the official poverty line and equivalent to £11,013 a year for a single parent with two children.

It was launched three years ago and its independent findings present a challenge as the government prepares to announce its own months-delayed child poverty reduction strategy.

Labour ministers such as welfare minister Sir Stephen Timms, energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh and policy adviser Graeme Cooke were key members of the commission before joining the government. Prisons minister Lord Timpson is a commission adviser.

Its report states that it is “clearly a concern that more than one in three of the UK’s future citizens are growing up in poverty, with all of the damage to educational outcomes and future health and employment prospects that comes with it.”

It calls for the two-child limit to be done away with as part of a group of wider measures to introduce a so-called “benefits floor” to ensure no-one has to live in deep poverty — where their total resources fall below 50 per cent below the poverty line.

The standard allowance in universal credit should be raised to provide “at least the level of support needed for different families to avoid deep poverty” and an assurance that any deductions from benefits such as debt repayments do not push families below the deep poverty line, commissioners said.

They also called for a new social contract, where efforts to tackle poverty “are shared between actors from across society.”

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown said: “This report reveals the deep, abject and worsening poverty faced by millions of children and the urgent need to act.”

The two-child cap was introduced by the Tories in 2017. It restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.

A government spokesperson said: “This government is determined to drive down poverty and ensure that every child gets the best start in life.”