Universal Credit: Two-child Limit

Lord Gove Excerpts

Wednesday 10th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, the great advantage is not an either/or. The wonderful thing about child maintenance is that it does not impact on somebody’s social security, so if someone is working and getting some universal credit, maintenance tops that up further. The Child Maintenance Service does an astonishing job in many, sometimes very challenging, circumstances. Here is one simple statistic: since the Child Maintenance Service was set up in 2012, it has collected 93% of all the maintenance owed, but I am sorry to say that there are some parents who simply do not want to pay for their children. The Child Maintenance Service has astonishing powers. It will go after them, and it will keep after them, but we should encourage everybody to do the right thing: pay for your children, go out there and make it possible for them to have a decent life.

[Lord Gove (Con)]

My Lords, if this policy is such a good idea, why was the Whip removed from seven Labour MPs in the other place when they voted in favour of it last year?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

My Lords, perhaps the noble Lord knows more than I do about the state of the economy that this party inherited when we came into government. We have dealt with all the challenges that his Government left behind. Chief among those was the state of—not just support for children—the welfare state. We had huge numbers of people who had been abandoned. Under the last Government, the bill went up by £88 billion. This Government came in with a budget. We invested £1.5 billion in employment support; we have reformed Motability and universal credit. We are going to make a difference. We care about children.