The Scottish Government vows to scrap the two-child allowance limit

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The Scottish Government on Wednesday announced it will end the two-child allowance limit next year, part of a package of measures aimed at reducing child poverty and strengthening public services in line with the Prime Minister’s policy priorities John Swinney.

Delivering the Scottish Budget for 2025-26, finance secretary Shona Robinson said she would work with London to abolish the cap that prevents most parents from claiming additional child-related welfare payments if they have more than two children.

“There is no doubt this cap will be scrapped,” she told MSPs at Holyrood, saying the Scottish National Party’s decision to scrap the “harmful” policy would lift 15,000 children out of poverty from April 2026 – one month before the people of Scotland vote in parliamentary elections.

Despite pressure from the SNP and within the Labor Party to limit this, the UK government still maintains the two-child limit.

In a Budget which she said “delivers progress”, Robison made a record £21bn for health and social care, including an extra £2bn for frontline NHS services. She also announced £768m to fund affordable housing, an £800m increase in social security benefits, universal winter fuel payments for pensioners and an expansion of free school meals .

Since replacing Humza Yousaf as SNP leader and first minister in May, Swinney has vowed to return to key issues such as public services and economic growth.

The pivot comes as the pro-independence party prepares for Holyrood elections in May 2026 after a heavy defeat in the UK general election in July.

Wednesday’s declaration raised tax thresholds for people on low to middle incomes, removed limits on local authorities increasing council tax and provided business rates relief for corporations hotels are struggling to recover from the pandemic lockdown.

With Scotland’s “ambition” for “green re-industrialisation”, Robison said the government would treble investment in offshore wind to £150m next year, along with £25m for jobs new green energy supply chain and a £300 million investment. on upgrading heating and insulation systems.

Hers, Robison added, is “a Budget filled with hope for Scotland’s future”, even if financial pressures persist due to London’s decisions.

In her October Budget, UK chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered a £47.7bn settlement to Scotland in 2025-26, the biggest in real terms since devolution power.

The settlement includes an additional £3.4 billion – of which £2.8 billion is in day-to-day spending – through the Barnett formula, the mechanism Westminster uses to fund the administrations’ budgets authorized in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The minority SNP government needs to secure the support of at least two opposition MSPs to pass the Budget. Failure to do so would result in a snap election, but most analysts say there is little appetite for one before the scheduled May 2026 election.

Support for the Scottish Labor Party has waned during British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s troubled first five months in office.

Ahead of the Budget, the SNP held talks with the Greens in Scotland, where they have formed a coalition government until April, about securing support.

But after the announcement, Ross Greer, the party’s finance spokesman, said the Scottish Greens could not support the party in its current form, arguing that the plans “do not go far enough to protect local services”. direction. . . or to solve the climate crisis.”

Alex Cole-Hamilton, the party’s leader in Scotland, said the key demands of the Liberal Democrats had been included. “But we are still a long way from any kind of agreement,” he warned, calling for more money for children’s mental health care.

The Budget allocated £34 million in support for culture over 2025-26, bringing the devolved government halfway to its pledge to increase arts funding by £100 million a year by 2028- 29.