Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill

Sarah Pochin Excerpts

2nd reading & Money resolution
Tuesday 3rd February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Pochin (Runcorn and Helsby) (Reform)]

Although the reasoned amendment tabled by my Reform UK colleagues and myself has not been selected, I would still like to speak to the contents of that important amendment.

Scrapping the two-child benefit limit does nothing to help hard-working parents who set their alarm clocks every morning, and does everything to encourage families who are already on benefits to have more children in the full knowledge that the state will pay for them. Removing the two-child benefit cap without imposing any other restrictions, such as limiting it to working families with British-born parents, fails to incentivise work.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Sarah Pochin]

Let me make some progress. It increases the support to non-working families beyond that given to working parents earning above the benefit level, so those who work are being punished while those who play the system are rewarded. The cost to the taxpayer of scrapping the cap is estimated at £15 billion over the next five years, with families affected by the cap estimated to gain an average of £25,000 per family over that period, and the more children they have, the more they get. That is not sustainable, and it is not fair—it is another step towards crippling our economy instead of introducing policies to grow it. We cannot advocate for a society in which work does not pay.

Furthermore, due to higher birth rates among foreign nationals—

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Sarah Pochin]

Just a minute—I do not know who is first.

Due to higher birth rates among foreign nationals, a significant amount of this additional expenditure is expected to go to households in which at least one parent was born outside the UK.

To be clear, and to conclude, Reform will only lift the cap for British families where both parents are in full-time work.