The two-child limit for payment of benefits is affecting 1.5 million children, with more than a million of them growing up in poverty, according to campaigners.
The Child Poverty Action Group has described the limit as ‘this nastiest of policies’.
It says it could eventually affect about three million children with families losing out on up to £3,235 a year.
A survey of more than 3,000 parents found that in the last year many more families had struggled to pay for power bills and food.
Some of those affected include parents missing meals, children unable to join school clubs and outings and women who feel forced to return to work when their babies are only a few months old.
Abolishing the limit would cost £1.3bn a year, the report says, and would lift 250,000 children out of poverty with a further 850,000 in less serious deprivation.
The Government says the policy means that families on benefits have to make the same financial decisions as those supporting themselves by working.
It says there are exemptions and safeguards to protect the most vulnerable.
But CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: ‘Six years to the day since this nastiest of policies came into effect, our survey is showing its devastating effects.
‘The two-child limit makes it impossible for parents to provide their children with essentials – and the cost of living crisis is adding extra pain.’
