A preschool age child playing with plastic building blocks
THE two-child benefit cap will effectively end in Scotland next year, the Scottish government announced today.
Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the Westminster policy will be mitigated from March 2, 2026 — just weeks before the next Holyrood election.
The move is expected to lift 20,000 children out of relative poverty, according to government estimates.
The decision to mitigate the cap was first announced last year, but First Minister John Swinney said the Scottish government needed time to set up a delivery system.
The cap, introduced by the previous Conservative government in Westminster, limits benefit payments to the first two children born after April 2017.
Labour has so far resisted calls to end the cap, but Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he would be “looking at all options” to tackle child poverty.
Ms Somerville said Scotland could not afford to wait any longer, calling the evidence of the policy's harm “clear.”
The benefit will be rolled out 15 months after the announcement, the fastest delivery of any social security policy in Scotland, and is estimated to cost £150 million in the first year.
Anti-poverty campaigners welcomed the announcement and urged the Labour government to follow suit.
