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

Options for delivery

The Scottish Government wants to make payments to mitigate the two-child cap as soon as possible.

Scotland has 8 social security principles. The ones that are related to this work are:

• the Scottish social security system is to contribute to reducing poverty in Scotland.

• the Scottish social security system is to be efficient and deliver value for money.

The Scottish Government has thought of 3 ways the two-child cap could be mitigated:

1. Ask the DWP not to use the two-child cap in Scotland. The Scottish Government would have to pay the DWP to do this.

2. Ask local councils to make extra payments to people to mitigate the cap.

3. Get Social Security Scotland to make extra payments to mitigate the cap.

If the DWP stopped using the two-child cap in Scotland it could let more people get Universal Credit.

Women would not need to talk about difficult past experiences to get the Child Element for a third child.

Asking DWP to do this would need a lot of work to change systems and the law. This could take longer than other options.

Local councils already make extra payments to people to mitigate the UK Government’s ‘benefit cap’.

The benefit cap is a limit on how much money a household can get through the benefits system.

The way councils make payments to mitigate the benefit cap is linked to housing costs only.

If councils used this system for the two-child cap it would mean some families would miss out.

The Scottish Government thinks the best and fastest way is to make payments through Social Security Scotland.

Social Security Scotland knows how to act quickly to launch payments. An example of this is the Scottish Child Payment.

This option means the Scottish Government control more of the timescale than asking the DWP to do this. DWP will still have to work with the Scottish Government.

Question 1

Do you agree or disagree with the Scottish Government’s view that Social Security Scotland should deliver payments to mitigate the two-child cap in Scotland?

Answer

Agree Disagree Don’t know

Please give reasons for your answer: