EIS calls for immediate mitigation of two-child cap in Scotland

Ministers are facing calls to speed up plans to effectively scrap the two-child cap on some benefits in Scotland – with teachers’ leaders demanding an “immediate relaxation” of the policy.

The EIS said that, as it stands, families and children will not benefit from the Scottish Government’s plans – announced in the Holyrood Budget – until 2026.

The union also called on the Scottish Government to press ahead with plans to roll out free school meals, with EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley arguing that both primary and secondary pupils “should be entitled to a free, healthy lunch during their learning day”.

After First Minister John Swinney had declared ending child poverty a priority for the Scottish Government, Chancellor of the Exchequer Shona Robison announced in the draft budget action to effectively end the “harmful” two-child cap in Scotland from “as early as we can in 2026”.

The cooperation of the UK Department for Work and Pensions is required to achieve this and Ms Robison said ministers would “work as hard as possible in 2025” on the target.

She also promised that the Government and councils will extend free school meals to P6 and P7 children from low-income families.

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Ms Bradley stressed that the EIS “strongly supports” the Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty – a problem estimated to affect 24% of all young people in Scotland.

Adding that “far too many young people live with the consequences of poverty” which can have an “absolutely devastating” impact on them, the union leader told how teachers “often witness the damage that poverty does to young people’s educational experience and life chances .”.

Labeling the two-child cap as an “ongoing legacy of the previous UK Conservative government, which the UK Labor government has yet to commit to overturning”, she said the EIS “very much welcomes” the Scottish Government’s plans to to mitigate it.

But she called on Holyrood ministers to act more quickly, saying: “We understand there are discussions going on between the Scottish and UK governments about how this can be taken forward in Scotland, but would question why the plan to scrap the cap will not actually benefit children and families until 2026.

“The EIS would like to have seen an immediate remedy to the two-child benefit cap given the financial difficulties facing thousands of families in Scotland right now.”

Ms Bradley also described the budget promise of free school meals as being “modest progress”, saying that while “the most disadvantaged young people in P6 and P7” would benefit “the damaging impact of poverty on young people does not stop at the age of 12.” .

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She said: “EIS strongly believes that all young people – both primary and secondary – should have the right to a free, healthy lunch during their learning day.”

She said a “shared, solid ambition to ensure poverty is prevented from haunting the lives of Scotland’s children and young people” is needed.

However, the EIS secretary-general added: “We are unfortunately a long way from achieving this ambition at present, with one in four children experiencing it.

“The desire to tackle this problem is an important starting point, but the necessary political and economic decisions must be followed.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Government will lift the two-child benefit limit in 2026, which the Child Poverty Action Group estimates could lift around 15,000 children in Scotland out of poverty.

“The draft 2025-26 budget announced a commitment to spend £3 million to develop the systems to mitigate the two-child limit.”

The spokesman said the government is “also delivering the next phase of our free school meals expansion programme, which will be for primary six and seven pupils receiving the Scottish Child Payment from February 2025” – with this estimated to make free school meals available to a further 25,000 children.

The spokesman continued: “We continue to provide free school meals to over 273,000 pupils in primary one to five and special schools and to those eligible in P6 to S6, saving families who take up the offer around £400 per child per year.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for local government body Cosla stressed “fighting poverty, particularly child poverty, is one of the three shared priorities” contained in the Verity House agreement between councils and ministers.

The Cosla spokesman said: “We know that the cost of food can be a major expense for families and lack of access to adequate nutrition has a significant impact on children’s health and education.

“We understand the concern and disappointment at the delay in the roll-out of universal free school meals for children in primary six and seven and we will continue to call on the Scottish Government to do this as soon as possible.”

A UK Government spokesman said: “No child should be in poverty – that’s why our ministerial taskforce is examining all available levers across government to give children across the UK the best start in life.

“As we fix the foundations of the economy to make everyone better off, we will increase the National Living Wage, cap how much Universal Credit can be taken to repay debt and get people into work through our Get Britain Working plan to put more money into people’s pockets and help families build a brighter future.”