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More than 70,000 low-income families lost at least £2,800 each last year after having their entitlement to benefits taken away as a result of the government’s “two-child policy”, official figures show.

The statistics showed 2,820 households were exempted during the first year, the majority because they had breached the two-child limit after having twins or triplets.

The rollout of universal credit will increase the number of families affected. All new claims for the benefit after February 2019 will have the child element restricted to two children in a family, even if they were born before the policy was introduced.

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A total of 123,130 children were housed in temporary accommodation in England in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of nearly 80% since 2011. The number of people accepted as homeless over the age of 60 has increased by 40% in the last year, reaching 2,520. There has also been a significant rise in the number of homeless single parents.

England’s mainly Conservative-run county councils have warned ministers that the “worst is yet come” over cuts to services and that several authorities risk going bust unless steps are taken to shore up budgets.

The world economy faces a looming “care crisis” risking further division between men and women across the planet, according to a UN report calling for governments and companies worldwide to spend at least an extra $7tn on care by 2030.

Rising birth rates and increased life expectancy mean there will be about 200 million extra people on the planet needing care by 2030, with as many as 2.3 billion forecast to need some form of support from governments, the private sector or friends and family, the ILO said. The bulk of the increase will come from African nations, although there are also rising needs in many major economies, including the UK.

Facebook and Twitter have admitted they could do more to protect disabled people from online abuse, following criticism from the model and TV personality Katie Price, whose son Harvey has been victimised online.

The social media giants told MPs they could make the risks of abuse clearer to vulnerable people, and make the terms and conditions of using social media platforms easier for people with learning difficulties to understand.

More than 4.5 million children in the UK are growing up in areas with toxic levels of air pollution, the UN children’s organisation Unicef has warned.

Tests suggesting that children walking along busy roads are exposed to a third more air pollution than adults, as their shorter height places them close to passing car exhausts, were also released on Thursday.

Failure to support families at risk and reduce pressure on the care system will lead to child protection services becoming financially unsustainable, the chair of an expert care review group has warned.

Social media firms must share the burden with the health service as it battles mental health issues in young people, the head of NHS England has said.

Setting out the health service’s key priorities for the future as it marks its 70th year, Simon Stevens, the body’s chief executive, warned of a “double epidemic affecting our children” that also included obesity.

The government’s ambitious change to the benefits system, universal credit, fails to deliver promised financial savings or employment benefits and leaves thousands of vulnerable claimants in hardship, according to the public spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office effectively demolishes ministerial claims for universal credit, concluding that the much-delayed flagship welfare programme may end up costing more than the benefit system it replaces, cannot prove it helps more claimants into work and is unlikely to ever deliver value for money.

Theresa May will anger social care leaders by warning they will have to wait for desperately needed extra money, despite her promise of a £20bn a year bailout for the NHS.

There will be no large cash injection to tackle the care crisis until the “forthcoming spending review”, the prime minister will say – which is not due to kick in until 2020.