John Dickie, Director of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, responds to the roll out of the Scottish child payment to under 16s and the increase of its value to £25 per week.
New research shows affected families can’t afford what they need for their kids. 59% (210,000) families caught by the limit are working. Today’s first instalment of cost-of-living emergency payment won’t do enough.
The Universal Credit (Removal of the Two Child Limit) Bill is a Private Members’ Bill brought forward by the Lord Bishop of Durham to remove the limit in universal credit (UC) that restricts support to just the first two children in a family. The second reading will take place on Friday 8 July.
This briefing summaries the findings of two papers from the Benefit Changes and Larger Families research study which explore whether the two-child limit has affected families’ decisions about how many children to have.
Last month, chancellor Rishi Sunak stood before the dispatch box and delivered his third and most significant budgetary response to the current cost of living crisis. As he announced the measures, he pledged: 'We need to make sure that for those whom the struggle is too hard…and for whom the risks are too great…they are supported… We will make sure the most vulnerable and the least well off get the support they need at this time of difficulty.'
It’s great to see so many families already benefiting from the Scottish child payment. We know that this extra cash support is really making a difference to families.
The Queen’s Speech was a missed opportunity for the government to introduce legislation that would support people in the short term and improve living standards in the longer term.