Erica Young on the impending end of an unpopular policy

Momentum is building toward the consignment to history of a policy that is reminiscent of the Britain we saw in A Christmas Carol, not the compassionate modern country we need today.  

Known as the 'two-child limit', the policy restricts access to low income based social security (Universal Credit) to the first two children in a household.

This dramatically severs the link between need and the support available, while failing to account for the fluid nature of real lives, contrary to purpose of a developed social security system. The impact on children’s lives and prospects is devastating.  

For parents we support, like Callum and Jane (not their real names), it means the desperation and fear of not knowing how they will be able to provide for their three children when ill health rendered them dependent on one unpredictable income.   

The Citizens Advice Network in Scotland welcomes the commitment of the Scottish Government in this winter’s budget to “develop the systems necessary to effectively scrap” the two-child limit. The plan for delivery is not yet known, a question that may become pressing as the UK Government develops its commitment to review the operation of Universal Credit.  

The Scottish Government may look to Scottish Child Payment (SCP), a payment provided to each child in a household in receipt of Universal Credit. SCP is soon to become legally disentangled from the reserved system, meaning that mitigating the limit could be achieved by increasing the level of SCP for third and additional children. 

Removing the two-child limit has been found to be the most cost-effective available child poverty reduction policy. Ending it could immediately lift 15,000 children out of poverty in Scotland, providing relief to larger families disproportionately living in relative and absolute poverty.  

Since insufficient household income is the immediate driver of child poverty, a cash first approach is foundational, maintaining agency and dignity, while helping to transcend the stigma associated with assessing support. The parents our network support face barriers to improving their lives through work, higher living costs and various irrational features of the social security system such as the five week wait for an initial payment.  

Demand for advice about crisis support from local CABs is alarmingly high. Far too many face hunger and hardship. In the month from October to November this year, we provided 15% more advice about accessing emergency cash grants, while the volume of advice provided about foodbanks has increased by more than a fifth (23%) in the last year. All symptoms of the broader failure of social security policy to meet essential needs and strategically invest in people. 

We welcome the recognition by the Scottish Government that there are many dimensions to poverty for families, and that any effective strategy to tackle it must consider social security, employment and the cost of living.

Mitigating the limit is imperative but is limited in what it can achieve for our children in the absence of fundamental reform. No more sticking plasters. Open heart surgery is what is required.

Our plea is for a truly collaborative effort to deliver change shaped by evidence to tackle the root causes of child poverty.  

Erica Young is part of the Social Justice team at Citizens Advice Scotland.

This column was first published in the Herald www.theherald.co.uk