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Problems with the Scottish Government’s 2 child limit consultation

On Friday 21st February the Scottish Government published its consultation on plans to mitigate the 2 child limit in universal credit. The two child limit was introduced in 2017, over seven years ago. Since then there have been calls on the UK Government to scrap it and the Scottish Government to mitigate it. Both have declined but then rather abruptly and out of the blue in December 2024 the Scottish Government announced that it would finally mitigate the two child limit. Not only that but it is now very urgent that they do so as quickly as possible. A cynic might wonder why a benefit cut that’s been in place for over seven years suddenly demands urgent attention, and they might look to the political advantage over Labour this seems to have achieved, and also the looming Scottish Parliamentary elections which are just over a year away. But whatever the motivation, the announcement is welcome. The two child limit directly causes poverty and mitigating or abolishing it will improve live...
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UC Scottish Mitigations in a nutshell

Hi thank you for finding my blog. I am calling on the Scottish Government to bundle up all the good work it is doing or plannning to do to mitigate cuts to Universal Credit into one package of changes to Universal Credit itself for “claimants” in Scotland. At the time of writing the Scottish Government is about to start a load of work to mitigate the two child limit. This will involve laying regulations, spending £millions designing and implementing a new benefit payment, and administering it (via the Social Security Scotland agency) with all that entails, processing thousands of applications and making thousands of payments every month. It’s a big job. My message is STOP! There’s a better way. Work with the UK Government to fix it at source through Universal Credit. And while you’re at it fix the bedroom tax and the benefit cap the same way too, all in one go. Hopefully already you can see why fixing all three uk welfare cuts at source may be better for Scottish claimants, but in this...
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Introducing UC Scottish Mitigations

Once upon a time the Scottish and UK Governments promised to work together to scrap the bedroom tax at source - through Universal Credit. That didn’t happen because the UK Government was busy with other things, but it remains Scottish Government policy to this day. What the Scottish Government did do was use Discretionary Housing Payments to mitigate the bedroom tax and the benefit cap (note the benefit cap is different to the 2 child limit, it is a cap on maximum amount of Universal Credit a household can receive. Then the Scottish Government said they would also mitigate the 2 child limit. They haven’t set out the details yet but it looks like they plan to create a benefit payment similar to the Scottish Child Payment. This would be administered by Social Security Scotland. This is all excellent, it helps people in poverty, it protects people from becoming homeless, it will help children get the best start in life. But it is unnecessarily complicated. To get Universal Credit you need...
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Why change Universal Credit?

Even if it were possible to mitigate the bedroom tax, benefit cap and two child limit through universal credit in Scotland, why is that a good idea? After all the Scottish Government already have a way to mitigate the bedroom tax and the benefit cap, and they have a plan to mitigate the two child limit. The main reason is it is what’s best for claimants. Imagine if your universal credit application automatically ensures your award isn’t reduced by any of the bedroom tax, benefit cap or two child limit. From day one, everyone in Scotland would get 100% of the money they were entitled to every month. The alternative is requiring people to not only apply for universal credit, but also to apply to their council for a discretionary housing payment and to social security Scotland for the new two child limit mitigation payment. Take up We know that when payments aren’t automatic, some people end up not getting what they are entitled to. As far as I can tell it looks like the bedroom tax mitig...
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How can it be done

In the past there has been some debate about the Scottish Government’s ability to mitigate the two child limit, so can what I’m suggesting even be done? Can the bedroom tax, benefit cap and two child limit all be abolished for universal credit claimants in Scotland? This boils down to three questions, can the Scottish Government afford it, do they have the legal powers to make it happen, and could the DWP change Universal Credit this way for claimants in Scotland? Let’s take those one at a time. Funding This is the easy one. The Scottish Government already give councils enough money to mitigate the bedroom tax and the benefit cap in full, all they would have to do is move the money from discretionary housing payments to DWP. They have also committed to mitigating the two child limit in full starting in 2026. So the money to make the additional payments through the universal credit system is already there. Of course there are other costs, the Scottish Government would presumably have to...
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