Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 5 February (HL5370), whether they have applied the Family Test to the policy to provide support to a maximum of two children; and if so, how the potential impacts on families are being taken into account.

The government is committed to supporting families. To achieve this, we introduced the Family Test, which aims to ensure that impacts on family relationships and functioning are recognised early on during the process of policy development and help inform the policy decisions made by Minsters. The Family Test was introduced in 2014, and remains official government policy. The guidance for implementing the Family Test can be found here and is also attached :

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-test-assessing-the-impact-of-policies-on-families

The Family Test was considered during the development of the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children in Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit. The published Impact Assessment shows the measure will have a positive impact on overall family stability. The Impact Assessment is attached.