Scottish Social Justice Secretary has written to
, the UK Work and Pensions Secretary, to follow up on
the commitment to scrap the two-child limit from 2026.
The Scottish Government's plan to mitigate the limit on Universal
Credit, announced as part of the 2025-26 budget, will require
cooperation from the Department for Work and Pensions to enable
systems development and data-sharing.
In the letter to Ms Kendall, Ms Somerville said:
“Eradicating child poverty in Scotland is a national mission and
we believe that this policy will be a key driver in delivering
that mission.
“The Scottish Government is committing the resources required to
begin the preparatory work in the coming financial year with a
view to making the first mitigation payments in 2026-27.
“The Finance Secretary was careful to note that co-operation with
your Department will be necessary, which I understand will
primarily need to centre around systems development and data
sharing.
“We will also want to work with you to ensure that any mitigation
payments are disregarded as income for benefit calculations. The
Scottish Government is keen to progress this work as soon as
possible. I would therefore be keen to meet before Christmas to
discuss our policy and how, together, we might best be kept
appraised of progress as officials take forward this work.”
Two-child limit: Letter to
UK Government - gov.scot
