Scottish government vows to ditch two-child benefit cap as SNP reveals Budget plans
Scotland's Finance Secretary Shona Robison promised to lift 15,000 children out of poverty as she made her Budget announcement, ITV News Correspondent Peter Smith reports
The Scottish government will abolish the two-child benefit cap, in a move Finance Secretary Shona Robison says will lift 15,000 children out of poverty.
Setting out her draft Budget at Holyrood on Wednesday, Robison said there was no doubt "the cap will be scrapped", and that SNP ministers would aim to provide funding to affected families by 2026.
The two-child cap prevents parents from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third child, a policy which was introduced by the previous government in 2017.
Ministers north of the border have continually hit out at the policy for years, which has not been scrapped by the new Labour administration.
Calling on the UK government to provide the necessary data to allow for the change to be made, Robison said: "My challenge to Labour is to work with us - join us in ending the cap in Scotland, give us the information that we need."But either way, let me be crystal clear, this government is to end the two-child cap and in doing so will lift over 15,000 Scottish children out of poverty."
She also announced changes to Scotland's income tax band, allowing more of people's earnings to be levied at lower rates.
Robison claimed this would mean that the majority of people in Scotland would pay less income tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK.
The draft Budget also included:
£2bn for the NHS
Funding for a fresh winter fuel payment for Scottish pensioners
£15bn for councils
£4.9bn to tackle the climate and nature crises
And a £34m increase in culture funding
Scottish Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra said the Budget was an opportunity for the SNP to take Scotland in a new direction, after the UK government provided £3.4bn of additional funding.
"If only they had the imagination to take that new direction,” he told MSPs. "Scotland is going in the wrong direction under the SNP."
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the Budget was "more of the same" from the SNP.
He said: "Thanks to the SNP, workers and businesses will pay more tax only for that money to be wasted by SNP ministers who let public services decline."
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