Should the two‑child benefit cap be reinstated in the UK?
The two-child limit on the child element of Universal Credit, introduced in 2017, was removed from 6 April 2026 under the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Act. This now provides the child element worth around £3,500 a year for every child. The separate overall benefit cap remains, so around 50,000 larger families see no or partial gain. Reform UK has pledged to reinstate the limit for fiscal reasons while Labour calls it cruel.
20 Opinions
But entitlement should be limited to British born citizens, like all benefits.
I found the decision on this a tricky one, on one hand scrapping the cap puts an extra burden on tax payers, but reinstating it reduces affordability to have children, what about blended families, it wasn't a choice have 6 kids if both parents are widowers and two families become one large one, limit who can receive the benefit to people either indigenous or have been resident for ten years or more and contributed to the system, sounds harsh but practical.
But could be removed once we are making mony again. Not bankrupt Britain paying for stuff it can't afford
The benefits should be for British people only, citizenship shouldn't be enough to qualify. We have a less than replenishment rate currently, incentivising Britons to reproduce would help combat that.
The benefit cap is far more important than any of the yes voters realise. A LOT of UC claimants saw NO increase in their benefits from having the child cap lifted as the Benefits Cap was NOT increased.
Labour got rid of it for the islamist votes. That was the only reason it was removed. It was put on place because of certain types pushing out 6 children in 6yrs and the government funding them.
Welfare payments should not be universal as much as we can manage. We've all seen the articles on families living 100% off benefits for 6 or more children There is a case for some provision to assist families with children, but as the average British family does not have more than 2, it is unjust for working people who cannot afford a larger family to be forced to pay more and more to support those who decide to do so, a very large number of whom are already net recipients
Delaying abolishing the cap was one of the biggest blunders of the Starmer administration. Bashing the kids of the poorest families is not the solution to the UK's problems.
I was gonna say no since it’s not the child’s fault to be born into poverty. But if a family is massively irresponsible, having more and more children they can’t afford the state can always intervene and take the child away from them. So at the end of the day other than the emotional side of things the child will always have state support.
We have a growing problem of hardworking taxpayers having to restrict family size due to affordability while benefit claimants are subsidised to have large families. This unaffordability is due to the high cost of living caused by a bloated state. As well as being grossly unfair, it lowers the quality of the gene pool.