WESTMINSTER must lift the so-called 'rape clause' which is creating consequences "no government should be willing to accept".

The Work and Pensions Committee yesterday issued its final report on the two-child benefits policy, which has been widely criticised across the country.

Campaigners argue the legislation, which allows people to claim benefits for their first two children only, disproportionately affects women who may have conceived their third child as a result of rape.

The government said they would be exempt from the policy, only if they declared they had been raped.

Just 510 women had received an exemption in those circumstances, which experts believe to be less than those actually affected.

Now, the Committee has concluded that “no Government should be willing to accept” the consequences of the two-child limit, and demanded that it be lifted.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Any family in this country, except the super-rich, could fall foul of the two-child limit if their circumstances changed for the worse.

"This is exactly why social security must act as a national insurance scheme covering people when they’re most exposed to hardship - not increase it.”

Their report stated: "The Government’s justification for providing support through tax credits and Universal Credit to only the first two children in a family is that it wants parents claiming benefits to face the same financial choices as those who are supporting themselves solely through work.

"It argues that this policy is necessary to achieve fairness. That argument may be initially attractive. But it simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

"This distinction is crude and unrealistic: someone supporting themselves through work today might well need help from the benefits system tomorrow.

"By the Government’s logic, only a household wealthy enough to withstand all of life’s misfortunes without recourse to the benefits system could responsibly decide to have more than two children. Such households will be few and far between."

The report also added that "having children is not always a choice" and explained: "Only a minority of third children result from planned pregnancies. Some are conceived as a result of rape or coercive control—and with only 510 survivors receiving the exemption for such cases, it is inevitable that some are being affected by the two-child limit, despite the Government’s stated intentions. The two-child limit wrongly assumes either that pregnancies are always planned or that those who conceive as a result of rape or coercive control are in a position to leave their partner and disclose what has happened."

When the Committee first reported on the two-child limit in January this year the Government immediately accepted its central recommendation and reversed the “inexplicable” retroactive element it had intended to apply to children born before the policy was even conceived.