Children’s charities have called on the leaders of the UK’s political parties to remove the two-child limit policy for benefits.  

Fresh figures show released today that 1 in 10 children are now affected by the policy, with more than 80,000 of them living in Scotland. 

The two-child limit restricts child allowances in universal credit (UC) and tax credits, worth up to £3,235 a year, to the first two children in a family with a few exceptions.  

Charities including Child Poverty Action Group, Barnardo’s and Save the Children and the Children’s Commissioners for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all signed an open letter to party leaders opposing the policy.  

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The charities’ letter to the Westminster party leaders says failure act “...will permit a cohort of children to grow up in poverty, to miss out on play, to be held back at school and denied a better future.   

“Children need the leaders of this country to protect their childhood and secure their futures and abolish the two-child limit.” 

The Herald:

The charities cite the example of one family who face homelessness because they are cut off from further help after having more than two children.  

The family loses out on support worth £270 a month because of the two-child limit.  The family struggled to keep up with rent payments and in June 2023 their  landlord was granted an outright possession order to evict the family.

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When the case came to Child Poverty Action Group’s Early Warning System, the family had just 14 days to leave their home. 

Department for Work and Pensions figures released on Wednesday show 1.5 million children in the UK are affected by the limit with most families subject to the policy having at least one adult in work.  

The Herald:

John Dickie, Director of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland ,said: “We wouldn’t deny a third child NHS care or an education – how is it right to deny children much-needed support because of the brothers or sisters they have?  

“The two-child limit is one of the most brutal policies of our times. All this policy does is push more than a million children into poverty, or deeper poverty.  

“It’s time for all Westminster party leaders to commit to removing the two-child limit before more children are harmed. In the meantime we urge the Scottish Government to mitigate it t through additional payments of the Scottish child payment before it does more damage to children and to family life.”