Mitigation of the two-child cap
Overview
This consultation seeks views on the Scottish Government’s proposed approach to mitigate the two-child cap policy applied by the UK Government. The two-child cap restricts support through Universal Credit (UC) to the first two children in a family except in some limited circumstances. The Scottish Government is committed to developing systems to alleviate the impact of the two-child cap in Scotland in 2026. The consultation paper sets out more fully the proposed approach which intends to deliver mitigation payments at pace and in line with the Scottish social security principles.
The Scottish Government is proposing to mitigate the two-child cap in Scotland by making a flat-rate payment equal to the UC child element for each third and subsequent child in Scotland.
Mitigation of the two-child cap is not a straightforward task. It will require significant policy and technical work to develop and implement an appropriate solution. This includes co-operation from the UK Government around systems development, data sharing and legislation. The technical delivery of the mitigation must carefully consider risks, issues and dependencies such as data sharing with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The Social Security Programme has commenced the ‘discovery’ phase of the project, which will impact delivery options, including joint work with DWP to agree, build and test additional data sharing functions and create a joint delivery plan.
The responses to this consultation, alongside the outputs of that discovery process, will inform the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting the legislation that will be necessary to deliver the payments.
Read the consultation paper. The consultation paper contains full background information for this consultation. You may find it useful to read or refer to while responding.
Useful information about responding to this consultation
As you complete your response, each page will provide the option to 'Save and come back later' at the bottom. This means you can save your progress and return to the consultation at any time before it closes. If you don't use this feature and leave the consultation midway through, your response will be lost.
Once you have submitted your response, you can enter your email address to get a pdf copy of your answers sent to you.
On the 'About You' page at the end of this consultation, organisations will have the opportunity to tell us more about their work and/or how their response was informed.
After the consultation has closed there will be a delay before any responses are published. This is because we must check any responses to be published abide by our Terms of Use.
An analysis report will be published after the consultation has closed. This report will summarise the findings based on all responses submitted. It will be published on the Scottish Government website and you may be notified about it if you choose to share your email address with us. You can also join our consulation mailing list where we regularly list newly published analysis reports (as well as new consultations).
Why your views matter
We want to gather your views on the proposals to deliver mitigation payments to people in Scotland impacted by the UK Government’s two-child cap.
Your views will help to refine and develop the proposals laid out in the consultation. Responding to this consultation offers you the valuable opportunity to to help shape how the Scottish Government takes forward this important part of the fight against child poverty in Scotland.
The responses to this consultation will be analysed and used to inform the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting the legislation that will be necessary to deliver the payments. Once the responses have been analysed we will provide a further update to explain our next steps.
Give us your views
Interests
- Children and Families
- Communities and Third Sector
- Equality, Welfare and Rights
- Main hub
Share
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook