Tories propose two-child cap for key Scottish benefit

A two-child cap should be applied to a key Scottish Government benefit payment, the Scottish Conservatives have said.

The Scottish Child Payment is currently available to low-income families, with a weekly payment of £27.15 per child.

The Tories have warned that the social security bill in Scotland is becoming “unaffordable, unfair and unsustainable”.

Making the announcement at an event in Edinburgh, leader Russell Findlay said limiting the payments to only the first two children in a family was a “fair, reasonable and necessary measure”.

His party introduced the two-child cap across the UK in 2017, which limited Universal Credit and tax credit payments to the first two children.

This is set to be abolished come April, a move announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in November’s Budget after months of pressure.

The Scottish Child Payment was introduced in 2021 by the Scottish Government, initially at £10 per week, as one of its key programmes in reducing child poverty.

The amount has been increased multiple times in the last five years, though child poverty campaigners have warned still not enough is being done to meet targets.

Concerns have been raised about the sustainability of the bill, with forecasts highlighting the Scottish Government may spending £2bn more on social security than it receives through block grant adjustments from the UK Government – largely due to the Scottish Child Payment and the Adult Disability Benefit.

Findlay said: “Our country is blessed to have a social security system that helps people in genuine need, but the benefits bill has spiralled out of control under the SNP.

“We are the only party being straight with the paying public by saying that Scotland’s bloated benefits bill is unaffordable, unfair and unsustainable… Given the child payment is a standalone SNP policy, the soaring costs in relation to it will have to be met either by more tax increases or cuts to public services.”

The party has also expressed concern that the benefit can act as a deterrent to people entering work.

An evaluation of the five family payments, of which the child payment is one, found in some cases recipients risked losing eligibility for the benefits which would make them worse off, despite bringing in more income.

However, the paper also highlighted the payment had “not impacted the majority of recipients’, or their partner’s, work situation”, and in some cases it had allowed parents to return to work by helping with costs such as childcare.

Anti-poverty campaigners have criticised the Tory policy. Chris Birt, Joseph Rowntree Foundation associate director for Scotland, said it would cause "avoidable hardship".

He added: "When it was applied at a UK level, the main impact of the two-child limit was to force children into poverty as a result of them having brothers and sisters... Social security and support for work must not be seen as competing policies, and treating them as such has failed to reduce poverty over recent years."