Universal Credit - mitigation of the two-child limit: consultation analysis

Concluding Remarks

Summary of Key Findings

Overall, responses to the consultation were highly polarised. The majority of individuals who responded were generally opposed the introduction of mitigation payments in principle, and therefore disagreed with each of the proposals put forward in the consultation document. These respondents advocated for personal responsibility and accountability for children to lie with the parents rather than for the taxpayer or state to ‘subsidise’ them. They considered the introduction of mitigation payments to be unfair, unsustainable and not a good use of public resources. Rather, they tended to advocate for other sectors and issues to be treated with higher priority, such as the NHS, education, housing, the economy, etc. There were also numerous arguments that a mitigation payment would encourage greater reliance on benefits and worklessness, and could encourage families to have more children simply to access these higher/additional payments.

Conversely, the majority of organisations and attendees at the lived experience workshop event supported the removal or mitigation of the two-child limit, and therefore largely supported each of the proposals to introduce mitigation payments for families in Scotland. These respondents strongly opposed the two-child limit policy, and oulined at length the negative impacts this creates, both for families and the wider community. They highlighted the links between child poverty and poorer experiences and outcomes in education, health, mental health, employment, etc., thus necessitating greater reliance on public services. They also cited research/evidence which indicated that the two-child limit had not had any impact on parental employment levels, and therefore they did not expect the mitigation payments to have any negative effects in this regard. These respondents agreed that mitigation payments would help to tackle poverty for some of the most vulnerable and needy children and families within society, which would have both immediate and longer-term benefits, both for the families involved and for the wider community. They also supported Social Security Scotland being responsible for the payments, using s79 powers to establish them, as this was the seen as the fastest and most straight forward way of setting up the system and getting the money to eligible families. These respondents also supported disregarding the payments as income in order to ensure the money is used as intended (i.e. to directly support families and not to be clawed back by DWP via reductions in other benefit payments).

A few key areas of concern were, however, highlighted consistently among those who supported the proposals, including:

• the need to address the gaps and ensure that families were not excluded from these payments - while getting money to families as quickly as possible was considered paramount, it was felt that further consideration needed to be given to those who would not be able to claim the mitigation payments via the current proposals, with alternative mechanisms required for such families, albeit this may take longer to set-up;
• addressing the interplay between current exceptions to the two-child limit and the mitigation payments to ensure that each is applied in the most appropriate way;
• addressing ‘cliff-edges’ between benefit payment levels and income levels. It was noted that reaching an income level which pushes families out of eligibility for Universal Credit could also have a wider impact on overall income as families could lose access to a wider range of benefits and other supports;
• Ensuring that financing the mitigation payments does not negatively impact on other initiatives or public sector services. It was recognised that a wide range of interventions will be needed to achieve the Scottish Governments child poverty targets and therefore funding should not be diverted; and
• that implementation of these mitigation payments should not lessen the resolve or need to pressure the UK Government to abandon the two-child limit policy at source for all across the UK - this should remain the ultimate goal.

As individuals responded in greater numbers than organisations, their views tend to dominate the closed question feedback. However, their qualitative responses tended to be much shorter and focused on opposition to the introduction of mitigation payments generally rather than on the specific proposals at each question. Meanwhile organisations provided much longer and more detailed qualitative responses, meaning greater balance and understanding was provided between the opposing arguments.

Next Steps

Overall, the consultation provided useful feedback on the proposals for the mitigation payments, which the Scottish Government should take into account when finalising their plans and any legislation required to take forward any final policy.

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this publication may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact socialsecuritycl@gov.scot for further information.