A LEGAL challenge against the Tories’ unfair two-child limit on benefit payments by two single mothers was quashed today, leaving thousands like them in despair.

Supreme Court justices unanimously dismissed an appeal by the claimants who had argued that the policy was in breach of human rights because it disproportionately affects women. 

Campaigners said they were “hugely disappointed” at the judgement but are now considering taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights. 

The rule, which came into force in April 2017 as part of Tory George Osbourne’s austerity drive, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children of the family, with a few exceptions.

These include if a child is the product of rape — known as the “rape clause,” forcing women to reveal pregnancies arising from non-consensual sex in order to receive the benefit. 

The two single mothers who launched the claim had both been affected by the limit which they argued was responsible for worsening child poverty. 

But the Supreme Court’s president Lord Reed dismissed the case today, upholding previous decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal.

The judges said that while the policy did have a greater impact on women, there was an “objective and reasonable justification” for this on cost grounds.

Women make up 90 per cent of single-parent families. 

The Child Poverty Action Group, which supported the mothers’ legal bid, said the ruling “fails to give any meaningful recognition to the reality of the policy on the ground and its desperately unfair impact on children.”

The campaign group’s head of strategic litigation, Carla Clarke, said: “We know the two-child limit increases child poverty, including child poverty in working households, and forces women to choose between an abortion and raising their families without enough to live on.

“We continue to believe that the policy is unlawful and, together with our clients, are considering taking the matter to the European Court of Human Rights so that no child is left out of the social security safety net purely because of their birth order.”

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Reynolds also expressed disappointment at the judgement.

“In the midst of a pandemic and jobs crisis it is particularly callous to continue to pursue this punitive policy,” he said. “The government should do the right thing, abolish the two-child limit and support Britain’s working families.”