As the dust settles from the election and the new government enters office, Labour have so far refused to commit to abolishing the two-child limit on claims for Universal Credit.
Introduced in 2017, the supposed aim of the two-child limit was to incentivise employment in larger families however research has shown that this has not occurred for a variety of reasons.
https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/CASE/_NEW/PUBLICATIONS/abstract/?index=10186
The two-child limit policy is therefore a failure. By 2021-22 it had affected over 428,000 UK households and over 1.5 million UK children according to the data collated by the End Child Poverty Coalition (see below). 25,050 of those families lived in Scotland and contained 87,160 children at that time.
Two Child Limit Data
A family that lacks even the basic minimum Universal Credit payment that one or more children require for their weekly food and clothing will struggle to buy fuel, or food, or in some cases pay the rent due to the additional caps on housing costs benefits imposed since 2010. The families affected by the two-child limit are faced with impossible choices before they could even consider budgeting for things like a bed, school supplies or a chest of drawers for a growing child.
While obviously many other services to children and young people have been destroyed during the years of “austerity”, and urgently require replacement or rebuilding, since 2017 these problems have been compounded for many families by the extra poverty caused by the two-child limit. This can result in health problems and other issues cascading onto already overstretched school, Council and NHS services, impacting on the resources and services available to children in other households not directly affected by the two-child limit. By this, the failed policy of the two-child limit impoverishes all children.
It is imperative that the new government begins the process to abolish the two-child cap immediately to give children a fairer start in life.
Since November 2022 the Scottish Child Payment, which has cross party support, as well as the ongoing Scottish Best Start initiatives, have helped to offset some of the harms of the two-child limit. Children in England could be benefiting from similar policies if political leadership was shown at Westminster. The English free school meals campaign led by Marcus Rashford showed that there is widespread support for Scottish policies like this in England. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/53061952 The new government should take note of what can be achieved where there is the political will to prioritise the wellbeing and prospects of children and have the courage to follow Scotland’s lead in this.
Meanwhile, the failed two-child limit policy remains in place UK-wide and your new Westminster MP is the person to lobby about its abolition.
https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons
(c) Paul Dowsland, Rights Advice Scotland
