THOUSANDS of children are affected by the two-child benefit limit in Barnsley - and the majority of their parents are currently in work.

A two-child limit on benefits means that families who have had a third or subsequent child after April 2017 are denied up to £3,235 per year per child compared with families whose kids were all born before that date.

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.

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show some 2,870 children in Barnsley North were living in 840 households affected by the two-child limit in April.

Using the latest census figures, it means around 18 per 1,000 households in the constituency were impacted by the policy.

This was in line with average rate across England and Wales.

In Barnsley North, 440 - 52 per cent - of the affected households were in work.

It was a similar picture in Barnsley South, with figures showing that 3,480 children in Barnsley South were living in 1,000 households affected by the two-child limit in April.

While just under half of the households affected were in work.

In Marie Tidball’s Penistone and Stocksbridge constituency, 1,180 children were living in 340 households affected by the two-child limit in April.

A total of 56 per cent of those affected were in work.

All three of Barnsley’s MPs voted against scrapping the cap last year, just months after Barnsley Council unanimously agreed a cross-party plan to pull struggling families out of poverty.

But fresh calls have now been made to cut the cap again.

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.”

A government spokesperson said it would reform the ‘broken social security system’ to help those who can work into well-paid jobs.

They added: “We are also rolling out a national network of life-changing family hubs for children across the country as well as expanding free school meals and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.”