Universal Credit - mitigation of the two-child limit: consultation - easy read

Mitigating the two-child cap in Scotland

On 4 December 2024, the Scottish Government set out plans to mitigate the two-child cap.

Mitigate means doing something that will make a problem less bad for people.

This would mean making a payment the same as the Child Element for children affected in Scotland.

Just now, the child element is worth £287.92 each month. In April 2025, this will go up to £292.81.

The SFC thinks this could be paid to 42,000 children in 2026-27 and cost £3,609 a year for each child.

This could cost the Scottish Government £155 million in 2026-27. The costs could increase to £198 million in 2029-30.

The Scottish Government would need to work hard with the UK Government to make this change happen.

The Scottish Government did work like this for the Scottish Child Payment. It took 18 months to do this for children under 6 years old.

Mitigating the two-child cap would have to be done carefully. Social Security Scotland still needs to pay other benefits and make them better too.

The Scottish Government is using £3 million to start this work. This lets the Scottish Government look at options and work with the UK Government.

This consultation and work to consider options will help with changing the law to mitigate the two-child cap.

Changes to the law could be looked at by the Scottish Parliament later this year.