Labour will make no progress on child poverty by the end of this Parliament unless it invests in social security, new analysis has found.

Researchers at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) have forecast that under current growth projections, only Scotland will see child poverty rates fall by 2029.

The charity said welfare policies like the Scottish Child Payment and mitigating the two-child limit from 2026 were behind Scotland bucking the trend of rising child poverty across the UK.

More than four million children in the UK are living in poverty.

The JRF found that even if the UK economy grows significantly more than expected, overall child poverty rates show little change and could rise if growth benefits higher income households most.

With the UK Government set to publish its child poverty strategy later this year, the JRF urged ministers to abolish the two-child limit and introduce a protected minimum amount of support below Universal Credit’s current basic rate.

JRF chief executive Paul Kissack said: ‘Policy action must start with the system designed to help people meet their costs of living – social security.

‘At the moment that system is not only failing to do its job but, worse, actively pushing some people into deeper poverty, through cruel limits and caps.

‘The good news is that change – meaningful change to people’s lives – is possible and can be achieved quickly. We know this from our recent history, and from different approaches across the UK.’

The president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Andy Smith, said: ‘Directors of children’s services want to work with government to see the eradication of child poverty via a comprehensive national strategy that gets to the root causes of deprivation, including high housing costs and benefits that have not kept pace with the actual cost of living, rather than offering short term sticking plasters.’