Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the effect of the two-child limit to families on benefits in the UK.

The two-child limit policy aims to introduce fairness between households claiming benefits and taxpayers who support themselves solely through work. Families on benefits should face the same financial choices when deciding to grow their family as those supporting themselves solely through work. A benefits structure adjusting automatically to family size is unsustainable. Child Benefit continues to be paid for all children in eligible families as well as an additional amount for any disabled children.

Statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children was published in July 2022 and can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-and-child-tax-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2022

Some key statistics from the link below are as follows:

• From the latest published statistics on UC households, the majority of families on UC had fewer than three children (79%), with 21% of UC households with children having three or more children.

• In April 2022, there were 420,000 households on UC with 3 or more children, of these 56% were not receiving a child element/amount for at least one child (due to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children).

• In April 2022, there were 4.15 million households on UC, and there were a total of 1.3 million children living in a household that was not receiving a child element or amount for at least one child due to being affected by the policy.

• In April 2022, 17,000 households that had a third or subsequent child born on or after 6 April 2017 were in receipt of an exception.