Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the current annual savings to the Exchequer provided by (1) the benefit cap, and (2) the two-child limit on social security payments.

The saving to the Exchequer provided by the benefit cap in 2021/22 – the latest year for which data are available - was £400m.

For the policy that provides support for a maximum of 2 children in Universal Credit (UC) and Child Tax Credits, it is not possible to provide a current annual savings measure and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

In our previously published analysis on the cost of ending the policy that provides support for a maximum of 2 children in Universal Credit (UC) and Child Tax Credits over the period 19/20-23/24 we estimated that the cost of ending this policy to be around £5bn up to 23/24.

The Government’s view is that providing support for a maximum of two children or qualifying young persons in Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit ensures fairness between claimants on the one hand and, on the other, those taxpayers who support themselves solely through work. Where they are able to, Individuals should consider whether they are financially prepared to support a new child without relying on benefits.

We recognise that some claimants are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family, which is why exceptions have been put in place to protect certain groups. On migration to Universal Credit families’ existing entitlement will be protected, so long as they remain responsible for the same children and entitled to benefit.